Yesterday, the streets of Cape Town were lined by cheering crowds as a string of red buses paraded the IPL’s star cricketers amid the kind of hype usually reserved for World Cup victories.
The event, shown live to the nation on TV, took place just three short weeks after South Africa agreed to host the tournament. Tickets are selling like hot cakes and tens of thousands of South Africans are expected to pack the stadiums for Saturday’s opening games.
You would think that cricket, and not football, was South Africa’s number one sport.
The LOC protests that it is indeed marketing the World Cup, but the truth is that there is no hype worth writing home about.
Source:
2010 World Cup marketing hype just isn’t cricket
The Times
April 17, 2009
