Indo-Pak ODI may shift from Delhi

The match had assumed importance because Pervez Musharraf was likely to watch the ODI at Ferozeshah Kotla.

Uncertainty arose on Thursday over Delhi hosting the sixth and final match of the Indo-Pak one-day series on April 17 to be witnessed by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf after the organisers expressed difficulties but the government virtually insisted that the encounter should go on.

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In a surprise development, the Delhi and District Cricket Association organising the match at the Feroze Shah Kotla came out with a statement that it was facing problems in hosting the match.

"Broadly the security conditions and absence of MCD clearance is creating difficulty in staging the match," DDCA President Arun Jaitley said after a two-hour long meeting of the DDCA Executive Board Thursday afternoon.

"The members have desired that we must immediately convey this to the cricket board. We would convey this today itself," he said.

However, rejecting DDCA's ground, the Central government made it clear that there was no problem about providing security to the match which was to be jointly witnessed by Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

There was no reason why the match should be called off on security grounds, a Home Ministry spokesman said. Sources said the Prime Minister was still keen on meeting Musharraf during his visit to India.