South African never enjoyed the cricket festival better than the second the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) did back in 2009. It was the 45-day cricket carnival, it was the one-of-a-kind road show.

A good 10 years after that experience, Cricket South Africa (CSA) will surely be looking for a repeat of 2009.

Nothing official yet, but the BCCI is already busy working out emergency plans, much in advance, to shift the cash-rich league overseas if need be when the time arrives. Unless early elections are called for — India is gearing up to witness a full-scale nationwide voting between April and May.

In such a scenario, the BCCI will be left with only two choices. Either the complete tournament will be shifted out of the country, the IPL will have to be moved to South Africa, as was the case in 2009, or the tournament will be partially shifted out of the country, like to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as was the case in 2014.

Nevertheless, CSA is excited about it already. For the BCCI, the 2019 IPL, potentially speaking, is already a logistical nightmare with the ICC 50-over World Cup in 2019 begins on May 30, the Indian Board will have to ensure a 15-day window between the IPL and the World Cup.

To accommodate the World Cup deadlines as well as the Lodha panel reforms, the BCCI is already working on bringing forward the start of the IPL by close to 15-20 days. One of the sources of TOI said, “That’s the only reason why partial shifting of the IPL out of the country is more of a possibility than entirely shifting the tournament. If that’s the case, UAE could be the destination.”

While, the sources in CSA said, “The only bigger sporting spectacle South Africa has witnessed was the FIFA World Cup. Even the 2003 ICC World Cup here paled in comparison to the excitement that the IPL triggered in 2009.”