Trevor Jones, media director of Magna-Carta, the company handling media relations here for the IPL told the Economic Times in an email, "If you have not been explicitly notified that your application for accreditation for the final three IPL matches has been granted, this means that you do not have accreditation for these matches."

"Accreditation devices for those without accreditation for the final three matches have been deactivated. Anyone bearing these devices will be turned away at the gate.

"We have been approached by many people about the accreditation process for the finals, a number of whom we are hearing from for the first time," he added.

The space at the press box in the Johannesburg stadium is limited, and the organizers have attempted to accommodate as many people as possible. But as the accreditation applications started piling up, they realized that there were just too many, and had to filter them.

"However, there is still not nearly enough space to accommodate everyone who feels they should have accreditation. Applications for accreditation were around double the number of press box spaces available."

On being asked what the criteria for accrediting the media were, he answered:

• Almost all Cricket media from India who had travelled to South Africa explicitly to cover the IPL have been approved.

• From the South African print media, one cricket correspondent and one photographer per media group have been accredited.

• Non-Indian, non-rights holder broadcast media that have not attended matches until now have not been approved.

• Media representing wire services and other non-South African media titles: Correspondents who are bona fide cricket writers (that is, people who have attended and filed from league stage matches) have generally been approved. Non-cricket writers, such as those who file colour pieces and the like, cannot be accommodated.

Jones has fervently apologized to those who cannot be accredited: "We are indeed sorry that we cannot accommodate everyone from every media title who believes they should be there. Given that all space is already allocated, we simply cannot accommodate anyone else.

“We are sorry that we are not in a position to debate why and how some have been granted accreditation and others not, neither will we discuss how criteria have been applied in specific instances."

Considering the needless media attention that the IPL grabs, it is a right decision on their part to manage the media and filter through the applicants.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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