Home Ministry may play mediator on Indo-Pak WT20 match in Dharamsala

- 'It is an event involving players of two countries. We will try to convince the state government.'

The Home Ministry may play the role of mediator between Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Himachal Pradesh government, which expressed its inability to provide security to the India-Pakistan World Twenty20 match scheduled to be held in Dharamsala on March 19.

Home Ministry officials said there is a need to sort out the differences between the two parties after state Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh wrote a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh stating that his government cannot provide security for the match.

"It is a matter of concern that Himachal Pradesh government expressed its inability to provide security to the match. It is an event involving players of two countries. We will try to convince the state government," an official said.

Earlier in the day, Virbhadra Singh said in Shimla he has written to the Home Minister on behalf of his government regarding this matter.

"I think if the match takes place in Dharamsala, it would be against the will of the people of Himachal Pradesh," Singh said.

"If our war veterans don't want the Indo-Pak match to be held in Dharamsala, the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association should accept it. They are not opposing the holding of matches. They are against the Pakistan team playing in Himachal Pradesh," Virbhadra Singh said.

BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur, who is also a BJP MP in Lok Sabha from Himachal Pradesh, said the state knew of the schedule months in advance and did not specify any such concerns at that time.