Calcutta: The official line is that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is awaiting New Zealand’s response to a request for an extra Test before finalising a one-day series in Sri Lanka, but other factors are also at play.

Team India is to tour New Zealand later this season.

According to The Telegraph’s sources in the BCCI, a “commitment” must first be forthcoming on the availability of Sri Lankan players for edition No.2 of the Indian Premier League (IPL), from April 10-May 24.

The other bit is the A (or Arjuna Ranatunga)-factor.

Apparently, some in the BCCI want to be “absolutely sure” that the World Cup-winning captain and Member of Parliament won’t be allowed to make a comeback as chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

Ranatunga, it may be recalled, rubbed the BCCI brass the wrong way by questioning the worth of the IPL and insisting that national duty had to take precedence.

Additionally, not long before he was sacked late last month, Ranatunga lifted the ban on players who’d aligned themselves with the Indian Cricket League, which doesn’t have the BCCI’s blessings.

A five-match series is being planned for early February, once the Mahela Jayawardenes return from Pakistan after playing three ODIs and before they go back there for two Tests.

“The one-day series will generate massive funds for SLC and, so, we definitely need a commitment where the IPL is concerned. We will, after all, be doing a favour,” somebody very influential in the BCCI said on Thursday.

He confirmed that the issue had been raised during last week’s working committee meeting.

Another gentleman with influence spoke of the Ranatunga-specific anger in a powerful section of the BCCI.

Ranatunga is, of course, trying to make a comeback and is understood to have refused a deputy ministership which has been offered as a sop.

Sri Lanka’s sports minister Gamini Lokuge hasn’t yet appointed a new interim committee, but there’s talk that either former chairman Jayantha Dharmadasa or the last secretary, K.Mathivanan, would be at the helm when a body is put in place.

Not that somebody like the very ambitious Thilanga Sumathipala isn’t fishing in disturbed waters.

For now, Lokuge (who removed Ranatunga) has chosen a bureaucrat to be SLC’s “competent authority.” Former captain Duleep Mendis, who has been the chief executive for some years, is providing continuity at a time when negotiations are on with different boards.

His plate, clearly, is full.