New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori is disappointed that he will not be able to travel to one of his favourite destinations for the Indian Premier League, which will be staged in South Africa this year.
"It's disappointing it's not in India. The guys love going over there and touring," Vettori said.
The second edition of IPL was shifted to South Africa because of security apprehensions in India as the tournament schedule clashed with the country's general elections.
Vettori was also skeptical about how the IPL would be received in South Africa.
"One of the most exciting bits about the tournament was you got to play in front of 50-60,000 people who are tremendously excited about the game," he was quoted as saying in a New Zealand Press Association report.
"We probably won't have those sorts of crowds. It will take a little bit away from it, but the important thing is the games are being played," said Vettori, who plays for Delhi Daredevils.
New Zealand's captain, however, felt that since South African fans have already been exposed to a top quality series involving Australia, the IPL might be responded well.
"It's pretty late to be playing cricket in South Africa, but the pull of international players should make it as good a tournament as it was in India," Vettori said.
But Vettori was relieved the Twenty20 extravaganza will start a week later than orginally scheduled because that will give himself, Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor and Kyle Mills a little more recovery time after the ongoing series against India ends in Wellington on April 7.
"Delaying the tournament is the best thing for us, otherwise most guys would have hopped on a plane after the last day of the Test match and that can be quite tough on you," he said.
"Now that it's concrete I think everyone's settled and pretty happy."
His teammate Ross Taylor hailed the shifting of IPL venue, saying, "If you're dead you can't earn any money. Life's obviously more important than earning cash.
"I was still not sure whether I was going to go or not. If they said it was safe I would have gone and if they said no then I wouldn't have. It's good to be taken out of our hands and for it to be played in South Africa or England," the batsman was quoted as saying by SportToday.
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