Tour on: AS Indian Premier League (IPL) to kick off, travel bookings for South Africa, which were initially slow, seem to have picked up. Bookings are largely being driven by corporate travellers, according to travel companies, even as tour operators lock horns to garner volumes through a price war.

Ads: Also,the world's biggest gum company Wrigley today announced its sponsorship tie-up with all the eight franchise teams of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the second edition of the T20 tournament starting in South Africa from April 18. The deals would be complimented by various promotional and advertising initiatives including special contests and prizes, fan trips to South Africa, electronic and print media campaigns and so on.

Team worries: Teams have yet to calculate the extra expenses they might incur for shifting an event of this magnitude abroad but first off, they are unhappy with having to pay extra for transporting official and commercial kits to SA. Airline charges are over Rs 1,000 per kg but since most of the material teams are transporting are in excess of 2000kg, the burdened franchisees might have to shell out Rs 20 to Rs 25 lakh extra just for transporting these kits.