Match Figures
Cape Town:	8
Johannesburg:	8
East London:	3
Centurion:	12
Port Elizabeth:	7
Durban:	16
Kimberley:	3
Bloemfontein:	2
- 80 per cent of the South Africans of Indian origin live in Durban; 15 per cent in the province that includes big cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria
- 59 IPL games will be held over 37 days.

 

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The night is young. The moon glistens over a shimmering Indian Ocean. Cries of "Hey check this out, bra (brother)" and "Hey Laitie (Little One), watch out" waft through the humid air in Blue Lagoon, the Indian part of the beach in Durban. Cars shudder with the beats of the latest Bollywood potboiler Aa Dekhen Zara. Some kids set up a chant: "Man United"!

You mention the Indian Premier League (IPL) tentatively, and suddenly there is a buzz, and a crowd.

A columnist asked readers to take what might be a last look at playing greats like Sachin, Warne, Gilchrist.

"The tickets are not on sale yet, are they?" the eager boys ask, and the girls squeal: "We are sooo excited!"

Durban, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal province, along South Africa's eastern coast, where 80 per cent of the 1.5 million South Africans of Indian origin live, will host 16 of the 59 IPL matches. About 15 per cent of South African-Indians live in the Gauteng province, which will host 16 matches in Johannesburg and Pretoria, the national capital. The remaining five per cent South African-Indians live around the legislative capital, Cape Town, where the tournament kicks off.

"I want to go to all of them, but I heard the cheapest ticket might be 200 Rand. I will not be able to go to any one of them!" wails one of the girls. "Hey, Vas, shut your drama!" snorts a young man, trying to suppress a laugh, pulling her hair. The bonhomie descends into a mini squabble.

Almost 600 km northwest of Durban, in Johannesburg, the commercial capital of Gauteng, Pravesh Surajbally and his wife Thavina are glad they won't squabble over a cricket match. "She supports India and I support South Africa—now with the IPL, South Africans and Indians will be playing together, so no more fighting," he says. But it isn't just the South African-Indians who are excited by the IPL. "All my friends at school who play cricket follow the IPL," says Siddarth Govender, a 17-year-old who adores Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting as much as he loves Shahrukh Khan.

Julia Beffon, a columnist with one of the country's leading newspapers, the Sunday Times, implored readers to go to the matches because it could be their last opportunity to watch greats like Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Stephen Fleming. Jean-Pierre Calder, who played with the likes of former England batsman Allan Lamb at school, is "extremely excited". He says while many people might be ignorant of the IPL teams, "the fact that South Africans are playing alongside other great cricketers will be enough to pull the crowds in".

Fifty-nine games in 37 days—isn't that a bit too much? But viewer fatigue, say enthusiasts, is not a worry. "Nothing like sports to beat the depressing economic mood," says John Laubscher, a cricket fan. "Besides, South Africans love the Twenty20 format." The fact that many of the games start around noon could be a big damper, though. "We cannot catch those," says a disappointed Siddarth.

But this factor varies from centre to centre. Calder, for instance, is glad the games in Johannesburg would start a bit late. "That's fortunate because we can go for those," he says. But the IPL's duration is forbidding. Explains Archie Henderson, sports editor of the Sunday Times, "IPL will be just too long for South African fans, although interest might pick up for the playoffs, particularly if South African players have done well."

But it's clear that stadia in South Africa will never match Indian crowds in numbers. Cricket is popular largely among the Indians and white communities. Among the 4.3 million whites in the country, cricket is the second most popular game after rugby. Football is the most popular sport among blacks—and overall as well. Worse, it's football and rugby season. The country's high crime rate could also impact the turnout in late finishing matches.

For the present, the great interest in India and all things Indian—Bollywood, clothes and curries—draws people from all race groups. Take Teresa Mojela. As she leaps into the air, her feet and lips in sync with 'Ai mere dil' from Kaho Na Pyar Hai, she can easily pass off as an Indian teenager. Up close, you realise she is a kid from South Africa's largest black township, Soweto, outside Johannesburg, where the final of the IPL will be held. Like other teenagers in Soweto, which is home to nine per cent of the country's 47 million population, Mojela loves Bollywood and learnt to dance from Vinod Hasal, who runs three dance centres in Soweto with help from the Indian government's Indian Cultural Centre. About Bollywood, Anil Kalyan, a Johannesburg resident, says, "It is like Shilpa Shetty, everyone knows her in South Africa after Big Brother. Many people watch Bollywood films now."

In office a young white colleague asks eagerly, "You think Shahrukh will also come to the matches?" The big hope is that the combination of cricket and Bollywood would draw in the crowds, cutting across gender and race groups. Indeed, after Taare Zameen Par was released in South Africa last year, it was not unusual to find sobbing or puffy-eyed women from all race groups troop out of theatres. India's big brand ambassador here is Bollywood; its blockbusters hit the main circuit in South Africa on the same Friday as in India. Mention Shahrukh Khan in a crowded lift and you will have women from all race groups squeal, "Oh, he's wonderful".

The IPL could not have come at a better time for the South African economy, the biggest in Africa, but which contracted for the first time in a decade in the fourth quarter, with massive job cuts looming. Obviously, sectors such as tourism and air travel would benefit directly. Economist Iraj Abedian says that in real terms the financial benefits from the IPL would not be much, "but it is a vote of confidence in South Africa".

There has been much speculation in the media over how much Cricket South Africa (CSA) would make from the tournament, following reports of sponsor withdrawals in India. CSA president Gerald Majola told the Business Day newspaper that he signed a deal with the IPL to secure the first part of the payment for setup costs and that the full amount agreed to would be paid before the tournament started. "I have also read the reports from India and that is why I made sure that this deal was totally secure," he said.

But Siddarth and hundreds of thousands of cricket fans aren't losing sleep over the financial implications—a possible glimpse of Tendulkar or Shahrukh is enough to keep them awake.