TNN
New Delhi, Mar 5: Indian Premier League organisers have sent a fresh schedule to the home ministry in the wake of security concerns about the elections and the T20 tournament being held simultaneously.
The new schedule carries the same inaugural and closing dates. The home ministry has sent the schedule to all the states for quick response.
The tournament has come under a cloud of uncertainty in the wake of the deadly terror attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore and the general elections in India which coincide with the league that starts on April 10.
After a series of meetings, the IPL organisers have re-drawn the schedule of the tournament taking care that no matches are held on polling days in the cities hosting the games.
"We have taken care to ensure that host cities are not alloted a match two days before and after the polling day. We have submitted the schedule to the home ministry. It is upto them now to advice us," a top IPL source said.
The IPL officials are not meeting the home ministry officials for the time being. "We will have a meeting if they call us to seek certain clarifications or for any other matter," he added.
The organisers are not in favour of postponing the tournament as it may lead to massive financial loss for the franchise owners as well the tournament itself.
The home ministry has made it clear that providing security for the league during the time of general elections would be difficult, due to shortage of paramilitary forces and the time it is likely to take for deploying them for election duty.
The security agencies are themselves unwilling to stretch for the league and have told the government to press for a postponement of the high-profile event.
The terror attack on the Sri Lankan team on Tuesday in Lahore has also compounded the problems for the IPL organisers, who now expect pullouts by many of the foreign players.
Federation of International Cricketers Association chief executive Tim May has already sought a wider role in assessing the security for players during the IPL.