IPL Keeping Fingers Crossed Over New Schedule

The Indian Premier League organisers are desperately hoping that a new itinerary, the third that they have submitted, will meet with the approval of the central and state governments as they bid to ensure that the competition starts as scheduled on 10 April.

Monday's meeting between the Indian Cricket Board and home ministry officials had failed to break the impasse, but the IPL administrators have quickly responded by sending a new fixture list to the government.

"We have received a new schedule from the IPL organisers today and it has been sent to the states for their view," a home ministry spokesperson said.

The new schedule takes into account the concerns of the eight states, and several venues are likely to miss out, including Delhi, the national capital, and Jaipur, home to the Rajasthan Royals who won the inaugural IPL.

The eastern coastal city of Vishakapatnam, initially mooted as a centre for both the Deccan Chargers and Andrew Flintoff's Chennai Super Kings, is also likely to be excluded from the list, but Ahmedabad and Dharamsala, neither of which has an IPL team, look set to host matches. Dharamsala is home to the Tibetan government in exile but there are precious few hotels there. Given the security concerns, teams are likely to be flown in for matches from Chandigarh or Delhi.

Sources have also revealed that the West Bengal government has given the go-ahead for the Kolkata Knight Riders to play fixtures in Kolkata. Earlier, there were suggestions that worries over security at Eden Gardens would result in the Knight Riders shifting their home matches to the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.