England and Wales have emerged as front-runners to host this year's Indian Premier League after Cricket South Africa chief Gerald Majola revealed he does not believe his country is the preferred choice of tournament organisers.

It was announced yesterday the competition would be moved away from India this year as security could not be guaranteed because of a clash with the country's general elections.

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was thought to be due in London today for talks with the England and Wales Cricket Board about the possibility of fitting the Twenty20 tournament around the county season.

England and South Africa quickly emerged as the favoured options to stage the tournament, but the former is thought to be favoured by IPL officials.
"England is a very attractive venue," Modi told the Daily Telegraph. "It is easy to access from India and there is a large Asian community to tap into."

CSA chief executive Majola is "not optimistic" the tournament will come to South Africa.
He told Talk Radio 702 today: "All that's happened so far is that we've received an invitation, an approach in fact, from the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to be a possible option for their IPL because they took a decision yesterday to move away from India.

"All we know so far is that we're just one of the options. From my gathering so far, nothing has happened since then - they are supposed to come back to us today, but the day has just started so hopefully they will get back at some point.

"But I must say from my side, I'm not that optimistic. The real reason I say so is the timing. I've worked with the Indians for eight years now.

"A decision has to be taken shortly. So I suspect they would be speaking to maybe their preferred choice and I think South Africa is just a standby to whoever their choice is.

"So I think a decision has to be made by tomorrow (at the) latest and we should know soon where this is going."

ECB chief executive David Collier was set to fly home from Guyana following yesterday's one-day international between England and West Indies in order to meet IPL officials in London on Wednesday or Thursday.

Collier said yesterday: "We have opened up discussions with the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the IPL within the last 36 hours and we'll be continuing those discussions in the middle of this week - and then we'll be reporting back to our board at the back end of the week.

"Clearly with only three weeks to go to the start of the competition, I think all parties recognise an early decision has to be made."

It has already been confirmed the original schedule - 59 matches over 45 days between April 10 and May 24 - will be retained, with one fixture each day and two each Sunday.

ECB have also made it clear they will not disrupt their domestic or international programme - meaning the grounds available will inevitably be limited.

There may also be issues surrounding broadcasting rights, as well as the logistics of accommodating eight teams, who would reportedly require around 400 hotel rooms per night.

But Modi feels the arrangement could be beneficial for all parties.

"The IPL is a big competition," he said. "We would bring around US dollars 100 million of revenue to the British economy and anybody in a recession would want to have us."