South
African President Jacob Zuma on Sunday
thanked the Indian Premier League
for reviving the country's economy
ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The IPL season2 was shifted to the
rainbow nation since it has overlapped
with the Indian elections.
"The IPL was a great advertisement
for next month's Confederations Cup
and the 2010 FIFA World Cup,"
Zuma said in his speech at the IPL's
closing ceremony.
IPL T20 cricket tournament has revived
the South African economy by 1 million
rand with the number of hotels booked
and the number of flights that were
added and finally it had given a fillip
to the South African tourism.
He has also said that the 37 day tournament
has become as household name in a
very short time and people were aware
of all eight teams and it has brought
cities to halt during the matches.
He also expressed his desires for
IPL3 in South Africa.
"It was a very difficult job
for us to prepare everything at such
short notice, including eight stadiums.
I thank the organizers for a wonderful
job. I also appreciate the presence
of the Bollywood stars like Preity
Zinta and Shilpa Shetty."—Zuman
said.
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