Indian Premier League ran into rough weather on Friday with the Home Ministry withholding security clearance of the high-profile tournament despite the organisers submitting a revised schedule that took into account increased security fears after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

The Home Ministry told IPL officials that it may not be feasible to hold the games as per the existing schedule. It has asked the organisers to re-work the dates yet again.

The organisers have been advised to accommodate the concerns of various state governments and draw a revised schedule and submit it to the Home Ministry.

After weeks of suspense on the fate of the cash-rich Twenty20 event, the latest directive from the Home Ministry has put a question mark on the tournament although IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said that it was willing to submit a new schedule.

The new development has come as a jolt for the organisers who had claimed last Tuesday that most of the states had agreed to provide security for the matches.

This is the second time that the IPL organisers have been asked to submit a revised schedule.

The IPL is keen to go ahead with the tournament as it was not possible to postpone the dates in view of the cramped international cricket calendar. In case it is postponed, it can only be held at the same time next year.

Following a video conference between senior officials of the seven states holding IPL matches and Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, the Home Ministry came out with a statement saying that it may not be feasible to hold matches as per the revised schedule submitted by the IPL on March 7.

“IPL organisers have been advised to accommodate the concerns of various state governments and draw up a revised schedule and submit the same to the MHA,” the statement said.

According to the statement, two states — Andhra Pradesh and Delhi — have expressed their inability to provide security during the election period.

Karnataka, on the other hand, has expressed its inability to provide security on two match days even though it was okay with four other match days of the league starting on April 10.

There, however, was no problem with matches in Chennai as the games there are scheduled after the election.

“It is not possible to exempt any state from its promise to release state police personnel for election duties because these have been taken into account in arriving at the overall availability of security personnel,” the MHA statement read.

Concerned over the availability of central paramilitary forces in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and simultaneous assembly polls in three states, the Home Ministry had earlier sent a revised IPL schedule to the states concerned on March 7 avoiding the polling dates.

The Ministry sent a reminder to these states on March 10 seeking their early response.

The five-phased Lok Sabha poll begins on April 16 and ends on May 13. The counting will take place on May 19 whereas the IPL tournament concludes on May 24.

Modi and IPL CEO Sundar Raman are expected to hold discussions with Home Ministry officials on Saturday.

Soon after the Home Ministry issued a statement asking the IPL organisers to re-work the dates as it was not feasible to hold matches under the existing schedule, Modi and Raman air-dashed from Mumbai to New Delhi in a bid to find a way out of the imbroglio.

The Home Ministry directive came after eight states, where matches in the second edition of the highly successful tournament were to be held, said that they may not be able to provide security in view of the general elections beginning April 16.

Modi and Raman may meet the Home Minister P Chidambaram and other top officials to get a feedback on the security issues related to the Twenty20 cricket extravaganza beginning April 10.