Cricket championship moved to SA

  1. Posted on Thursday 19 March 2009 - 13:25
    Mernat
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    Mernat Mafirakurewa, AfricaNews reporter in Johannesburg, South Africa
    The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to move the Champions Trophy knockout tournament from Sri Lanka to South Africa. The ICC board confirmed this after Sri Lanka warned that hosting the tournament there might be risky, given weather conditions in September.
    cricket
    The Champions Trophy has been reduced to 12 days and there is no provision for reserve days. The planned dates are September 25 to October 5.

    ICC president David Morgan said: “I think the board has made a sensible decision that will give the event every chance of success. We now have clarity and we can make firm plans for what is going to be a great festival of one-day cricket.”

    “With the Wanderers and Centurion, Cricket SA can provide two world-class venues in what is effectively one location and, as we know from the ICC World Twenty 20 event in 2007, the weather in this country in September and October is ideal for cricket,” he said.

    The development follows recent attacks on the Sri Lankan team.

    With the need to minimise risk and create certainty around the event, the ICC board agreed to recommend that Cricket SA be sought as the alternative host, with the Wanderers and Centurion as the venues, provided agreement on the financial arrangements could be reached.

    Originally planned for Pakistan, the venue had to be shifted because of security concerns.
    Cricket SA’s GM of cricket operations, Brian Basson, said that holding the Champions Trophy in South Africa had advantages all round.

    “Having games at Centurion and the Wanderers represents huge savings for the ICC because there will be no flights involved,” he said upon hearing the news.

    “Everyone likes having events here. The players will be pleased because they will not have to be at airports all the time. If the games are held on the Highveld, as is planned, then the weather is not going to be a problem because we don’t get rain here at that time of the year.”

    Basson said SA was an obvious choice over countries such as Australia, because major venues in SA were available earlier in the year.

    Many of the cricket venues in Australia double up as Australian Rules football venues.

    “Cricket in Australia generally only gets into full swing in November,” he said.

    Logistically, the tournament would also fit into SA’s overall plans very well, said Basson.

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