Maharashtra police want IPL matches in the state postponed. They say its impossible to provide security for the games when elections are on.
Polling in Maharashtra is on April 16, 23 and 30. As of now, 11 matches are planned in Maharashtra before April 30. Eight of them are in Mumbai – on April 10, 12, 14,15,17, 23, 25 and 26, and three are in Nagpur on April 19, 20 and 28.
Maharashtra’s director-general of police Suprakash Chakravarty has urged the IPL organisers to push the matches back till April 30 so that the forces can focus on the security of the Twenty20 tournament.
“We should not put extra strain on the police,” Chakravarty said. “IPL can be postponed till April 30 because the police will be better off by then.”
Home Ministry sources say states won’t be forced to provide IPL security.
“We will not force any state for providing security to IPL matches during elections,” Home Ministry sources told CNN-IBN. “The second reason we can’t force them is they have to do it with the forces available with them. We have already denied central forces to them.”
IPL Tournament Director Dhiraj Malhotra says that not all matches to be held in Mumbai will be affected, and that a resolution will be reached soon.
“Not all the matches will be shifted out of Mumbai, may be 4-5 matches,” Malhotra told CNN-IBN. “(But) That’s not an issue. We are working on a resolution – Modi is a very able man, thinks out of the box. We will go on only if security is fine.”
IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, however, remains hopeful of a way out of the latest problem.
