Delhi, Jaipur Dropped As IPL Venues

NEW DELHI: The Daredevils and the Royals will not get to play any of their games in the second season of the Indian Premier League on their home grounds as New Delhi and Jaipur along with Vishakhapatnam have been dropped as venues in the latest revised schedule of the mega event.

The revised schedule, which was submitted to the Indian Home Ministry, has left out these three venues as the respective State Governments could not guarantee security because of the general elections, IPL sources said.

“We do not expect any problems now. The Home Ministry will consult the state governments and then get back to us,” a top IPL official said.

Dharamshala, Ahmedabad and Nagpur are the three new venues in the latest schedule, it is learnt. Mumbai will host the maximum number of matches - 14 at 2 centres, followed by seven matches each in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The IPL will begin on April 10 and end on May 24 as per the original plan.

The IPL has also received a boost with Kolkata clarifying that it would not have any problem with revised schedule since the matches would not clash with election preparations.

According to sources, Raipur in Chhattisgarh may also host a few games as per the new schedule. An IPL delegation has already visited Raipur and inspected the facilities there.

The rejection of two of the earlier IPL schedules and the Home Ministry’s reluctance to provide paramilitary forces for the event had put a serious question mark on the fate of the high-profile event, slated to begin from April 10.

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