New Delhi, March 23: England, or South Africa? The Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Indian Premier League are faced with a hard task to choose from these two options to base IPL II now that the decision has been made to host the event overseas.

Both venues have their plus and minus points, but England appears to be emerging as the country of choice even though IPL commissioner Lalit Modi is reportedly inclined more towards South Africa, whose cricket board chief Gerald Majola he shares a close rapport with.

In Auckland, national team bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad indicated that most members of the team would prefer England. "It would make sense in having the event in England as it would help our cricketers prepare for the T20 World Cup. They could get a good feel of the conditions there," he was quoted as having said.

Also, a large chunk of the powers-that-be in the BCCI are also inclined towards holding the six-week event in Old Blighty, including board chief Shashank Manohar and its influential secretary N. Srinivasan, who incidentally owns the Chennai Super Kings.

The advantages of holding the tournament in England are manifold — a large number of top quality grounds which would have been readied for the new season with good practice facilities and lower travelling costs — to name just two.

On the flip side is the fact that IPL II will run slap into the county season, which means fewer grounds available, and the fact that the West Indies land within weeks of the event’s scheduled opening date of April 10. If the additional aspects like clashing ground signages, associated logistics and television rights are factored in, it may well go against this option.

Above all, the early English summer is notoriously fickle and the threat of matches being badly affected by variable weather is very real.

The fact that Modi has opted to fly to South Africa first is another indicator that opinion is tilting towards the African nation as the first choice. Reports late on Monday night suggested that Cricket South Africa was willing to walk the extra mile to help make the event a success and had also assured the BCCI of government support to make that happen.

"We still feel that South Africa is a better bet for the IPL when it comes to weather, TV timings and logistics," a South African official said.

Just like the ECB, the CSA has a number of top-class grounds and facilities that it can make available to the IPL teams. Eight such centres — acting as "home" cities for each squad — are needed, something South Africa cane come up without being unduly stretched.

Either way, a final decision will have to be taken fairly fast as the logistics of hosting such a large event — and at an off-shore venue to boot — are mind-boggling. The IPL and the men who run the show are well aware of this.