New Delhi, March 25: For someone who famously lashed out at India two years ago for hogging a major chunk of cricket games and leaving South Africa "scraps" to feed on, the developments in the last few days have come as quite a change.

Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola now finds himself in the thick of the action, hoping to host 59 matches within a five-week period and catering to the Board of Control for Cricket in India which he claims are his "new best friends".

Majola spoke to this newspaper on why he felt that hosting Indian Premier League II was more of an emotional decision rather than a money-making one. Excerpts:

On negotiations with the IPL: There were no negotiations, only agreements. Lalit Modi came up to me and said that he wanted my help. I felt obligated to help the Indian board. India were the first team to play South Africa after that dark period in early 1990s and I had help him out. It wasn’t about money, it was an emotional decision.

On the logistics: You have to realise that South Africa is not as big as India. We have hosted two World Cups, so there are no doubts over our organisational skills. We have 12 venues — the IPL organisers can pick and choose whichever venues they’d like to use. I’ve also spoken to the South African government who’ve assured me there are not going to be any delays in issuing visas. Every peripheral issue will be dealt before hand.

On revenue-sharing: We are not going to run around drafting deals with the IPL, broadcasters or sponsors now that we are hosting the tournament. We are going to take a slice, just a small percentage, of what the IPL will make off here.

On bigger quotas for foreign players: I’d love to see more South African players taking part in the second season. If there was a way for our domestic players to play, it would have been just perfect. I will be taking the matter up it in our meeting. The final call is with the IPL, though.

On elections in SA and IPL: I don’t see the irony. The IPL was not in the position to host the edition in India, because elections take two months to complete in your country. Here, in South Africa, we have one-day polls. The whole country will vote on April 22; the results will be declared the next day and the president will be sworn in April 24.

On crime in SA: We don’t have terror attacks here. There might be few odd incidents of mugging, but I can assure you the event will be incident free.