The 59 matches will be played in six stadiums across the country at prime time of 4 pm and 8 pm IST and will be telecast live by SuperSport of South Africa where the tournament was shifted in view of security concerns in the wake of Lahore terror attack and IPL dates coinciding with general elections.

The decision to host the tournament in South Africa in preference to England was taken primarily on account favourable weather conditions in South Africa, IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi told a joint press conference with Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola after hectic discussions that clinched the issue.

"The major and overwhelming reason for hosting the tournament in South Africa is primarily the favourable weather conditions in April-May in South Africa than they would have been in England", Modi said.

He said it was difficult to answer now the question of the cost of hosting the tournament in South Africa but it is going to be ‘much much higher’ than it would have been in India.

But he promised the franchisees that the IPL would bear the differential cost on account of the tournament being held abroad.

"Irrespective of the cost, we are happy to go forward in incurring the cost because cricket is very important for us, and all our club owners are with us", Modi said.

Modi said the the tournament, originally scheduled to start from April 10, will begin eight days later because preparations had to be made at a new venue for a world class event.

The IPL Commissioner, who flew in early this morning, held discussions with Majola who thanked him for choosing South Africa and said hosting of the tournament would enhance not only cricketing but bilateral ties between the two countries.

He also thanked England and Wales Cricket Board for offering to host the tournament and for their tremendous support. He said both South Africa and England had excellent facilities and great heritage in the game.

To a question on what South Africa gained by this decision, Majola said the presence of world class cricketers here would be a major gain and of course they would be paid some money for hosting the tournament.

"We are happy to extend the hand of friendship to India which has been a good friend of South Africa," he said, adding that this will do good to bilateral ties.

"At any given point of time, we have 10,000 people working on this tournament. South Africa will be benefitted a lot. We will be consuming 30,000 rooms in hotels and 10,000 airline tickets for the purpose of this tournament," Modi said.

"We would like to thank Cricket South Africa very much for the support they have given us over the past few days, which has helped us to come to this decision", Modi said.

"The South African public loves T2O cricket and CSA successfully hosted the inaugural ICC World T20. Both these factors weighed heavily in South Africa¿s favour, and we look forward to a successful and exciting tournament being held at venues throughout South Africa", he said.

Majola said it was a great compliment to both CSA and South Africa to be shown this confidence in our ability to hold one of the world's top sporting events at short notice.

"The organisers can be assured that they have the full support of our CSA's structures and the South African public to stage a successful tournament", he said.

"We are looking forward to hosting some of the world’s best cricketers, and we can assure them they will be provided with the very best facilities to show their skills", he said.