New Delhi: There seems to be another hitch to season two of IPL. Home ministry sources tell CNN-IBN, that eight police chiefs say matches cannot be held in April or May in its present form.
They say that police chief want more spacing between matches, currently there is no match 72 hours on either side of poll dates.
Elections in Bengal are on 30th April, 7th and 13th May. As of now- IPL matches in Kolkata are slated for May 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 13th
In Delhi, voting is scheduled for May 7 and IPL matches in Delhi are scheduled on the 5th, 11, 14 and 16th.
Maharashtra and Karnataka Schedule of polls and IPL matches also clash. The Punjab and Andhra police too want the IPL dates to be changed.
Home ministry also says that more than 72 hours are needed for deployment of C49SF and CRPF. The Intelligence bureau is also likely to advice against holding the matches.
Earlier, state governments have expressed their inability in providing security for the IPL, which coincides with the Lok Sabha elections.
"I did not say IPL should be postponed,” said Chidambaram. "IPL and election schedules are overlapping. I don't blame the IPL management at all. They finalised their dates earlier. But once the election commission announced the election dates, I saw that the election and IPL schedules were completely overlapping."
The Minister said that the "IPL has come up with another schedule now after I asked them to. We will try to help the IPL to the overcome all issues in holding matches."
Chidambaram added that some rescheduling of IPL matches "seems unavoidable", but "the government is ready to help as much as it can".
"Cricket must be played in India; cricket is always safe in India. We will ensure safety when the matches are played," the Home Minister added.
The IPL organisers have conveyed to the Home Ministry that they do not require any central forces for the security.
The Home Ministry has passed on the new schedule to the states and is waiting for their response as to whether they need para-military forces for matches or not.
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