Home Ministry seeks fresh schedule for IPL

The high-profile Indian Premier League (IPL) ran into rough weather today with the Home Ministry saying that it may not be feasible to hold matches as per the existing schedule and asked the organisers to re-work the dates.

The organisers have been advised to accommodate the concerns of various state governments and draw a revised schedule and submit it to the Home Ministry.

After weeks of suspense on the fate of the cash-rich Twenty20 event, the latest directive from the Home Ministry has put a question mark on the tournament although IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said that it was willing to submit a new schedule.

Following a video conference between senior officials of the seven states holding IPL matches and Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, the Home Ministry came out with a statement saying that it may not be feasible to hold matches as per the revised schedule submitted by the IPL on March 7.

"IPL organisers have been advised to accommodate the concerns of various state governments and draw up a revised schedule and submit the same to the MHA," the statement said.

According to the statement, two states -- Andhra Pradesh and Delhi -- have expressed their inability to provide security during the election period.

Karnataka, on the other hand, has expressed its inability to provide security on two match days even though it was okay with four other match days of the league starting on April 10.

There, however, was no problem with matches in Chennai as the games there are scheduled after the election.

"It is not possible to exempt any state from its promise to release state police personnel for election duties because these have been taken into account in arriving at the overall availability of security personnel," the MHA statement read.

Concerned over the availability of central paramilitary forces in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and simultaneous assembly polls in three states, the Home Ministry had earlier sent a revised IPL schedule to the states concerned on March 7 avoiding the polling dates.

The Ministry sent a reminder to these states on March 10 seeking their early response.

The five-phased Lok Sabha poll begins on April 16 and ends on May 13. The counting will take place on May 19 whereas the IPL tournament concludes on May 24.