Agencies

New Delhi, Mar 16: The fate of the Indian Premier League season two still hangs in balance with the meeting between the home ministry and the IPL authorities ending inconclusively in New Delhi on Monday.

A three-member team led by BCCI secretary N Srinivasan met special secretary (internal security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Raman Srivastava, on Monday to discuss the IPL matches’ dates.

The special secretary conveyed the ministry’s concerns and limitations and requested the working of a new schedule for IPL-II in consultation with states where the IPL matches are to be played.

The home ministry also told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that it would not be able to spare central forces for the Twenty20 tournament, PTI reported.

Asking the organisers of the high-profile tournament to hold serious consultations with concerned state governments, ministry expressed its "concerns and limitations" in sparing para-military forces for the cricket extravaganza because of the Lok Sabha elections.

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"We have had discussions. Home ministry explained its concerns and we have also explained our difficulties and our own concerns and the importance of all the stake holders," N Srinivasan, BCCI secretary told reporters in New Delhi.

"Once the new schedule is received, the ministry will look at it in consultation with the state governments," a home ministry spokesperson said.

A tentative schedule was earlier expected to be released after the meeting today. The IPL 2 tournament is scheduled to begin from April 20.

Before submitting the revised schedule, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi had said at a media briefing that before chalking out the new fixtures, all states concerned had been taken into confidence.

However, the ministry was taken in for a surprise when the states denied that they had been consulted by the IPL organisers.

The ministry had on March 13 rejected the revised schedule of the IPL organisers and said it "may not be feasible to play matches as per the submitted schedule".

"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 ministry had said while rejecting the revised schedule.