IPL hit by a fresh controversy, still remains uncertain

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) Despite frantic efforts by the
organisers to salvage the tournament, the Indian Premier
League was Thursday mired in a fresh controversy with the
Rajasthan Government accusing Lalit Modi of deliberately
dropping Jaipur as a venue, a charge denied by the IPL bosses.

Giving a political twist to the issue, the Rajasthan
Government lambasted IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi for omitting
Jaipur as a venue in the revised schedule of the Twenty20
event and said the people of the state will never forgive
him for this.

Shanti Dhariwal, the state's Home Minister, accused
Modi of acting against the state because he recently lost the
election in the Rajasthan Cricket Association.

"Modi has pulled IPL out of Jaipur. We wanted only two
out of six dates rescheduled," Dhariwal said.

"He never negotiated with us, never discussed with us. In
election one party wins and the other loses like in matches
but that doesn't mean you leave the state and walk away with
matches. The people of Rajasthan will never forgive him for
this," he fumed.

Terming the charges of the Rajasthan Home Minister as
"unfair", the IPL clarified that the changes were necessitated
because of certain constraints over security.

"There have been media reports about the Rajasthan Royals
home matches being deliberately shifted out from the Pink
City. To set the record straight Jaipur was one of the first
venues to express interest in hosting IPL and the initial
schedule that IPL submitted to the Home Ministry had five
matches scheduled in Jaipur," IPL CEO Sundar Raman said in a
media statement.

"However the confirmation from State Govt of Rajasthan
had a rider - which required central forces support. The
Ministry of Home Affairs had made it clear that no central
forces will be available," he explained.

"The schedule has since undergone multiple iterations. We
are operating with constraints and it would be unfair to call
this a deliberate effort on the part of IPL for chances in the
schedule that have been necessitated," he said.

The IPL organisers have dropped Jaipur alongwith Delhi
and Visakhapatnam as a venue in the revised schedule submitted
to the Home Ministry which is yet to give the green signal to
the high-profile event.

With the organisers racing against time to work out a
schedule, senior BCCI official Rajiv Shukla met Home Ministry
officials to take stock of the situation.

In a positive development, three states -- Karnataka,
Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh -- have sent their feedback to
the Home Ministry on the new fixtures and have given a virtual
clearance to the event.

The revised schedule, which was received by the Home
Ministry on Tuesday, was subsequently sent to the eight states
which are hosting the tournament beginning April 10.

While Maharashtra and Karnataka are understood to have
given their clearance, Andhra Pradesh has also given its nod
barring one match, official sources said.

Desperate to get the cash-rich league on track, the
IPL's top brass has held a series of meetings since Monday and
submitted the reworked schedule to the Home Ministry. The new
schedule was prepared taking into account the reservations and
security constraints of the states hosting the matches.

Union Home Minster P Chidambaram had on Wednesday said
that a decision on the fate of the second edition of the IPL
will be taken soon after the Ministry received feedback from
the concerned state governments on the revised schedule.

The schedule was revised for third time after the Home
Ministry had told the organisers that cosmetic changes in the
fixture was not acceptable and they would have to finalise the
dates in consultation with the state governments.