The terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore has not only nixed the chances of the Indian Premier League being held in India this year, it’s also affected our plans.
Today it’s been confirmed, quite understandably, that the 2009 IPL wil now take place in South Africa. It’s going to be a huge logistical problem to relocate such a mammoth event to another country at such short notice and I don’t envy the job of the organisers.
In comparison, our problem is trivial, but we’ve also had to change tack. For the past few months, we’ve been working with Sachin’s agent Vinod Naidu to find a window in the ‘Little Master’’s busy schedule for a media day to officially launch this website and publicise the forthcoming Tendulkar Opus.
First, we were looking at a date in December, in a gap between the India-England Test matches. Then the terrorist attacks on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai happened and that idea was out the window.
The next date pencilled in the diary was April 9, in Mumbai, on the eve of the IPL tournament. This would allow Sachin a few days off with his family following the New Zealand tour and ensure maximum global coverage as the world’s cricketing media would be in town for this exciting competition. Perfect for him, perfect for us.
The venue was set. The Taj Hotel. Yes, I know what you are thinking, but it is actually the best equipped hotel in Mumbai for hosting an event of this magnitude. And, of course, security has been tightened up since December.
So we were all set. And then Lahore happened. Like the IPL, though, the show must go on. In our case, we’ll have to wait a couple of months though…
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