New Delhi, March 24: The month-long suspense around the second edition of the Indian Premier League is finally over with South Africa being confirmed as the new venue. While the entire nation wondered about the future of IPL-2, the wind was always blowing the Protean way even before Board of Control for Cricket in India announced its decision to take IPL out of India on Sunday.

Sources close to Cricket South Africa indicate that the rainbow nation was sounded by the IPL almost a month back ago as a standby venue. The news about South Africa as a possible venue gained ground on Saturday, a day before the BCCI’s emergency working committee meeting in Mumbai.

In fact, CSA officials had already said Wanderers, Centurion and Potchefstroom were ready to host the IPL even before BCCI’s announcement on Sunday. CSA CEO Gerald Majola was however quick to dismiss the news as rumour before finally admitting to talks with the BCCI on Sunday.

Bangalore Royal Challengers took the opportunity to announce a change of guard at the top, replacing Rahul Dravid with former England skipper Kevin Pietersen as captain on Saturday. Pietersen was born in Pietermaritzburg in South Africa, before shifting to England.

Another Royal Challengers move is eye-catching in this respect, as Jacques Kallis will take over the reins from KP after he departs in May for the home series against the West Indies.

"A lot of thought went into the appointment of Pietersen and Kallis as skippers of the team. But we can’t comment on our marketing strategies yet as we got to know about the venue only a while back," a UB Group spokesman said.

Even the Delhi Daredevils will now look to take a cue from the Royal Challengers to capitalise on their South African options. "We have Ab de Villiers in our team, who has been in terrific form this season. It will always be handy if a wonderful player like him could be projected as the one of the face of Daredevils there," GMR Sports chief executive Amrit Mathur said.