IPL caravan hits the road

The second IPL got off to a rousing start in Cape Town with some of the best cricketers and Bollywood actors lending sheen to the gala event.

A couple of days before the first ball is bowled in the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL),the Twenty20 event made its first attempt to bowl South Africa over. Fans and onlookers lined up either side of the roads in Cape Town on Thursday to catch a glimpse of top cricketers and Bollywood stars,perched atop open-deck buses,as a colourful procession of eight teams marched through the city centre.

Having arranged the logistics in just three weeks time after the event was shifted out of India,IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said he was happy to have overcome the challenge. It was a huge challenge but we turned it into an opportunity. The South African government and the cricket board went out of their way to help us and made it a national event, a beaming Modi said.

We got approvals in minutes,not even in hours. Everything went extremely smooth and its amazing to put everything in place in such a short time, he said.

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Celebrity team owners Shah Rukh Khan (Kolkata Knight Riders),Preity Zinta (Kings XI Punjab) and Shilpa Shetty (Rajasthan Royals) raised the glamour quotient of the carnival while the players seemed thoroughly impressed.

Delhi Daredevils new recruit David Warner was amazed by the reception and the Australian said he could not wait to get going. Its an amazing city with amazing people. This is completely unbelievable. For me,this is a golden opportunity to play with people I looked up to and I cant wait for it to start, he said.

Former South African Test player Jonty Rhodes,now a fielding coach with Mumbai Indians,said the entire country was looking forward to the event. As a South African,Im really excited that IPL is taking place here. A great deal has been happening in the country and we all are looking forward to it, he said.

Mumbai Indians pacer Zaheer Khan,too,shared his enthusiasm and said,I can sense there is a lot of excitement here and its always great to play in a different country.

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Sourav Ganguly,who led Kolkata Knight Riders last year,said it would be difficult to match last years frenzy but felt people would come in large numbers to watch the matches. It would have been altogether different had it been in India but I think people will come in good numbers for one month of entertaining cricket, said the former India captain.

Asked what fans can expect from the Knight Riders,Ganguly said,Well play well and try our best to entertain the Indian and South African fans.

Australian Adam Gilchrist,who led Deccan Chargers for a major part of last years event,was also impressed by the huge response and promised a better display this time. We were clearly not at our best last year but we learnt from it. This year,we have brought some enthusiastic youngsters and all are eager to do well here, he said.