Suspense over IPL's new venue continues

New Delhi: The anxious wait for cricket fans continues as there is still a suspense over where Season 2 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played.

England has emerged as the clear front-runner and it now seems like a formality before the final decision is made. IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi is going to England on Monday night to seal the deal even as South Africa has all but conceded defeat saying they are a stand-by venue if England is unable to host the Twenty20 championship.

But the International Cricket Council President David Morgan said holding IPL in England might be a problem because there's a lot of Twenty20 being played in England this year.

Some counties such as Yorkshire have also said playing the tournament in the English season could be risky.

Meanwhile, in India politics over shifting of the IPL out of India is still continuing.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and ICC Vice-President Sharad Pawar, in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, said the decision to shift IPL out of India was a tough one but there was no choice.

"There are lot of financial commitments with the players, the franchisees and others. (There would have been) substantial losses. If we go out of India for one year and select a country where between 4 (1600 hrs IST) to 9 (2100 hrs IST) to Indian cricket loving population can see on television. As per last IPL 90 per cent of viewers saw IPL on television. So these 90 per cent will get an opportunity. There was no choice. No body is happy with the decision to shift it out of country. Next year definitely we will have it in this country," said Pawar.

The last few weeks have certainly been very uncertain for the IPL as Lok Sabha elections dates and security issues have clouded the championship.

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