In the continuing controversy over the dates of Indian Premier League matches next month, the Andhra Pradesh police have made it clear that they can have the matches in the state only after the completion of polling on April 23.
Their second condition is that there should not be any match between May 14 and 17 as the dates will clash with the arrangement for the counting of votes.
State's additional director general of police (law and order) Abdul Khayyum Khan told the reporters in Hyderabad on Sunday evening that the state police have conveyed this position to the IPL authorities as the dates suggested by them for matches in Andhra Pradesh were overlapping with the election schedule.
Andhra Pradesh is going to have the polling for both Lok Sabha and the state assembly in two phases on April 16 and 23.
Mr. Khan said that it was made clear to the IPL that AP police will not be able to provide required security for the matches at Hyderabad and Visakhapaptnam because they were running short of security personnel even for the polling arrangements.
In addition to the IPL matches originally scheduled for Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, the IPL authorities are also planning to move some more matches from Chennai to Andhra Pradesh as elections in Tamil Nadu were scheduled for the last phase on May 13.
Mr. Khan said that problem was more or less settled now as the IPL management had agreed to both the conditions. "We can provide the security on our own when matches are held after the elections", he said.
"If required we will also have the central paramilitary forces stationed in Andhra Pradesh and available after the polls", Khan said.
Explaining the difficulties faced by the police in providing security to the IPL matches during the election process, he said that the police of a city, where the match is held comes under tremendous pressure.
Moreover the threat of terrorism has also added to the concern of the police authorities, he added.
