In being chosen to host the Indian Premier League, South Africa showed that it is the new go-to guy for international sports events. When you’re in a sporting pickle, only one country has the weather and the infrastructure, not to mention a time zone that doesn’t exclude everyone but Hawaiians, to guarantee a successful event.

The ability to host multi-million dollar cricket leagues at a moment’s notice is not common, especially in countries that are affordable and sunny. Which makes me wonder, why don’t we make more of this?

Like call-centres and English language schools, hosting sports events may be an area of rich opportunity for our little corner of the global village. One might say that with a rugby World Cup, a cricket World Cup and a soccer World Cup on our resume, not to mention numerous other large events that we have taken this opportunity and run with it. But what of the time between these events?

It needn’t all be World Cups and Lions tours. A savvy marketer could surely sell a ‘plug-and-play’ sporting tournament in South Africa to British corporates looking for an alternative to office drinks on a Friday. British bankers can spend more on a lunch than it would cost for a ticket to South Africa, so why not a long weekend in Cape Town, playing a cricket tournament against your corporate rivals?

Such a package might include an organized schedule of games, the services of umpires or referees, equipment and meals – in fact, all the things a professional sports team would expect. An exhausted European businessman could climb onto a plane at the end of a long week, and climb off feeling like David Beckham.

The golf industry has long been wise to the attractiveness of golf tours to South Africa, especially in countries like Japan where, unless you’re the chairman of Sony, the game involves hitting balls around on the roof of a skyscraper. It wouldn’t be difficult to convert the idea of the organized golf tour into something a little more.

The amount of indoor soccer and cricket leagues that take place on any given night in South Africa is an indication of the popularity of corporate sporting events. Everyone needs to blow off some steam. So why not do it under the shadows of Table Mountain, with a bottle of well-priced wine waiting for you when you finish, rather than on a muddy bog in Surrey?

Source – shine2010.co.za