IPL starts in 2 days:

 The IPL mood was set today with the cricket carnival in South Africa today. The teams were made to tkae out a procession today in South Africa, giving a start to the IPL mood. Just wait two more days....

 IPL cricket 2009 Ride:

IPL Cricket 2009 to be held in South Africa

  IPL Cricket 2009 will be held in South Africa, as has been officialy announced by Mr. Lalit Modi. The tournament will see a slight change in schedule as now instead of starting on 10th April, IPL II will start from April 18th and the final will be on May 24th. The cricket tournament will see 8 franchises contesting over 36 days. The matches will be played live for the Indian audience on the regular IPL times of 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. IST.

 As everyone will remember, the first 20-20 world cup tournament happened in South Africa, and probably the way it was organised and the popularity it got at that time led to South Africa being chosen as the venue over England. So, finally that we know that IPL is going to start soon, let's get ready to enjoy it! 

IPL 2009 will comprise of 59 matches and will be played in eight cities across South Africa. The venues are:

1. Kingsmead, Durban: 17 matches (capacity 25,000)
2. Centurion Par, Pretoria: 12 matches (capacity 20,000)
3. Newlands Stadium, Cape Town: 8 matches(capacity 25,000)
4. The Wanderers, Johannesburg: 8 matches(capacity 30,000)
5. St. George's Park, Port Elizabeth: 7 matches
6. Buffalo Park, East London: 4 matches(capacity 15,000)
7. Outsurance Oval, Bloemfontein: 2 matches(capacity 20,000)
8. De Beers Oval, Kimberley: 2 matches(capacity 11,000) 

Look here for complete IPL 2009 Schedule . 

 What went wrong with IPL earlier:

The fate of IPL Cricket 2009 is now in doldrums after the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan. While players and fans are restless thinking of security concerns, the Indian elections add to the concerns as it's scheduled in round about the same ime as IPL. Hence, not much police force would be available to guard the IPL teams and staiums. 

 Mr. Lalit Modi, the brain behind IPL, came up with a solution that no matches of IPL will take place within 48 hrs of the election dates in that city. As a result, a new schedule for IPL was sent to the Govt. today, but the news is that the Govt. has rejected the new schedule as well. Now if IPL 2009 can not be indefinitely postponed because ICC has no open months to leave it's cricket teams free for IPL. And if IPL were tobe cancelled, it'd bring havoc to its sponsors and BCCI, costing them to lose huge money.

Let's see what happens in te coming days. Will keep you updated here.

Meanwhile, go through the 20-20 World Cup Schedule as this is surely going to happen as planned:

ICC World Cup 2009

The ICC 2020 Cricket World Cup is scheduled in England from 5th June to 21st June 2009.

The 2020 World Cup Super 8 Stage Teams will be decided as:
The first two teams in each group are placed 1 or 2. They will retain this position for the Super Eight stage, irrespective of whether they finish first or second in their group, unless they are knocked out by the team 3 in their group. In this instance, team 3 replaces the position of the team they knock out.

The teams finishing first and second in groups E and F, based on points obtained in the Super Eight stage will compete in the semi-finals:

 Ticket prices for 2020 World Cup Cricket