Thursday the streets were filled with fanfare as the Indian Premiere League made its entrance into Cape Town. The star studded parade featured nine floats; one for each of the eight teams and one for the Indian Premiere League. Indian dancers and brass bands from the community made their way down the streets with the league.
There were more than one-hundred and fifty cricket players who attended along with Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and of course Shilpa Shetty. It was no surprise that they each own teams including the Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals.
There were large crowds of people who gathered to watch the parade. The Indian Premiere League parade kicked off festivities that will run until the finals in Johannesburg on May 24. The Indian Premiere League commissioner Lalit Modi also decided to enlist help to find a Miss Bollywood South Africa.
Lalit Modi said “We’re looking for someone who has the star quality to stand out in a crowd, probably without even trying that hard…It’s that special, almost indefinable, quality that makes someone a star more than a beauty queen that we are looking for. IPL matches with their mix of fun and excitement are an excellent environment to identify the kind of person who is a natural stand-out in a big crowd.”
