I’m assuming Supersport wouldn’t be so foolish as to publish an April Fool’s joke on the 31st of March?

Hey? Surely not, guys.

You wouldn’t balls it up THAT badly, would you?

Supersport reports (including title screenshot with date):

The impact of the Indian Premier League has been felt around the cricketing world, and it has now reached even further after M-Net’s decision to screen the action in place of hit-show Idols.

M-Net has released the following statement:

“With the IPL cricket tournament arriving in South Africa in April, the Idols final will now be postponed until June as M-Net has decided to devote the Sunday and Monday Idols timeslots to the highly exciting sporting spectacle.

Say ‘later’ to Liezel and ‘howzit’ to Shilpa Shetty; ‘ciao’ to the wannabe singing stars and ‘hola’ to some of the planet’s most established sporting superstars; ‘goodbye’ to Idols and ‘hello’ to the IPL – for a month-and-a-half at least: pay TV broadcaster M-Net is interrupting the Idols season to bring its viewers the mouthwatering Indian Premier League cricket tournament, which was moved to South Africa last week after security concerns in its home country.

While it’s a drastic move by M-Net that effectively shifts the Idols final back to mid-winter, Head Of Local Content Helen Smit feels that it’s justified in light of all that the tournament offers. “Like Idols, the IPL is colourful and glamorous and has an energy that’s very appealing to all generations,” she says. “It was a difficult decision to make but M-Net feels that the lure of watching some of the biggest Stars in sports in a high-adrenaline form of the game is worth postponing Idols for.”

Head Of Supersport, Imtiaz Patel, echoed her sentiments. “The IPL is bringing the best players and biggest personalities in the game of cricket to our country: huge names like Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, Chris Gayle and Shane Warne. The 20/20 format tends to provide some nailbiting matches and has proved to be appealing to an audience that wasn’t necessarily watching cricket previously. We’re thrilled at Supersport that M-Net have decided to cast the viewing net even wider by broadcasting these big games.”

The interruption happens at the Top 4 stage of the Idols competition. The remaining 4 Idols will be allowed to return home for this period and will stay in the public eye through various PR ventures, appearances and interviews – these details will be made available as soon as they are confirmed.

The Idols timeslots will now be occupied by the following matches and highlights packages:

[more here]

If this is an April Fool’s joke then it is surely one of the most emboerrissing displays of mis-timing that I have ever come across in my life; and I urge the person that published the document to issue a letter of apology and resign.

It’s the right thing to do.

You fool.

[thanks ryan]

UPDATE : Keep track of all April Fool jokes around the world here

[thanks jonty – via twitter, nogal!]