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England frontrunners

APP, landon
j<> England may be in pole posi-
V tion to stage the Indian
DLF/k ^^nder League (IPL), now ^LEAGUE ;h‘" ^’‘^“y *' ’' h™ forced die event out of its home nation, but any transfer will not be straightforward.
I here arc several logistical problems, apart from finding hundreds of hotel rooms at short notice for the players and support staff, in trying to shoe horn the lucrative April 10-May 24 TWcntyZO tournament, featuring 59 fixtures, into the English cricket calendar.
IPL chiefs, who arc also considering South Africa and Sri Lanka as alternative venues ahead of a final decision expected in the next couple of days, are attracted to England for several reasons.
Among these are the quality of grounds, the relatively short distance between venues and the strong support for Asian teams in and around the country's major cities, which arc also home to Test match grounds that could stage fixtures.
However, if the likes of Headingley and Edgbaston are to put on IPL matches, counties such as Yorkshire and Warwickshire would have to move scheduled home fixtures to out- grounds.
" 1 think that all county clubs would be interested but the logistical issues in such a short space of time would be tough," Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan told Monday’s edition ofThe Times.
"How would we sell tickets, how do we accommodate the IPL sponsors and how do we organise security? My heart would say yes, let's do it, my head would say it probably wouldn’t be possible."
The latter weeks of the IPL tournament will clash with England's two home Tests against the West Indies.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)
has a contract with Sky TV for the broadcast rights of domestic matches in England, including Tests However, Sky's satellite rival Setanta has the rights to the IPL That may lead Sky to seek compensation from the ECB if it agrees to stage (he IPL.
England, which saw its plans for staging lwenty20 events in partnership with Allen Stanford that might rival the IPL collapse when the Texan businessman was accused of a multibillion dollar fraud by US authorities, is already due to host the World I wenty20 tournament, a competition for full International teams, from June 5.
Staging the IPL would allow some of the world's best players to acclimatise to English conditions before that event.
Former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer, who lives In England, told Sky Sports: "Everything fits in beautifully. We've got the infrastructure to hold the World !Wenty20 a month later, so why not have the IPL here?"
Whether large crowds will come to grounds for matches that will start in the morning and early afternoon English time, to fit in with Indian television schedules, remains uncertain.
But IPL commissioner Lalit Modi believes the lure of a big cash injection is likely to overcome any problems.
"The IPL is a big competition," he said. "We would bring around US dollars 100 million of revenue to the British economy and anybody in a recession would want to have us."
And yet, according to a plan put forward last year, English cricket would have made even more money if the go-ahead had been given to a nine-franchise team tournament modelled on the IPL
Then, a combination of the self-interest of England's 18 first-class counties and the ECB s involvement with Stanford sunk the scheme while it was still on the drawing board.
What no-one could have anticipated then was that the IPL itself might come to England.