South Africa bid for Champions Trophy

South Africa are tendering a pitch to stage either the next ICC Champions Trophy or the inaugural Twenty20 world championship.

Gerald Majola, the CEO of Cricket South Africa, confirmed on Thursday that the board had made known its intention to bid for the events. He told Cricinfo: "The Champions Trophy is first in our order of priority and then the Twenty20, but we don't want to host both tournaments."

The ICC board will sit in Dubai on March 20 and 21 to decide where these tournaments will be sited. Twenty20 cricket is simply bringing in too much cash in the countries where it has been staged for the ICC to ignore it and South African fans are especially fond of it. The next Champions Trophy, scheduled for 2008, is also attracting plenty of interest despite the controversies staining this year's tournament in India.

Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and the United Arab Emirates have all written to the ICC stating their intent as potential hosts, but Majola believes South Africa's bid would have them for breakfast: "If the ICC had to give us the World Cup tomorrow, we could stage it," he said. "No country is more ready to host the next Champions Trophy than we are."

And despite the problems in India, Majola is certain that hosting the mini-World Cup would be a tremendous boost for the game in South Africa, which has been troubled by financial difficulties in recent years.

"The financial spin-offs aren't bad, but it would also help in spreading the awareness of the game in South Africa," he said. "Hosting the World Cup in 2003 elevated cricket to the second most popular sport in the country and we want to make sure we don't lose that."

In order to stage the inaugural Twenty20 world championship, South Africa will have to see off bids from Australia, Bermuda, Malaysia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and the West Indies.

"The ICC would like to host Twenty20 tournaments in 2007 and 2010," Majola added. "All the speculation is that it will happen, because twenty/20 cricket has been incredibly popular and it makes financial sense."

The mere fact that the ICC are considering staging a Twenty20 world championship is exciting news: holding it under balmy African skies could just be the cherry on top.