Leading up to the start of the Indian Premier League this year, the controversies continue unabated. So, reacting – read, tweeting – to the statement made by the South African board that the country will be hosting the Champions League T20, Lalit Modi has said that the venue for the same has not been finalised yet!
There had been many speculations earlier about the location of the Champions League T20, with even USA emerging as a possible venue. However, the dust seemed to have finally settled on the issue when Cricket South Africa (CSA) came out with the press release that stated that it would indeed be South Africa who would host the tournament across three venues.
However, Modi seems to have put a spanner in their works by saying that nothing has yet been finalised. While he acknowledged that the country of South Africa is ‘a hot contender’ for hosting the tournament, he also added that the likes of Australia, England, India and the Middle East are other possible venues for the tournament.
The other controversy related to the home stadium for the Deccan Chargers (11/2 at Bwin to successfully defend their title) in IPL 2010 seems to have been solved as Cuttack has been added to the list of venues where the side will play their home games. Apart from Cuttack, their games will also be played across Mumbai and Nagpur, even as the Telangana dispute continues to shift sports out of Hyderabad and other parts of Andhra Pradesh.
Delhi Daredevils (5/1 at Totesport) go into the tournament as favourites with Chennai Super Kings a close second at 11/2 (Sporting Bet). However, a lot of that could change, based on the manner in which some of the big guns like Virender Sehwag (7/1 at Sporting Bet) and Adam Gilchrist (10/1 at Sporting Bet to top-score in the tournament) go about their business in tournament.