Cricket Australia will let players involved in the IPL make their own decisions about whether to take part in the tournament following threats on their safety from India. The Shiv Sena political party has said they would not allow Australians to play in Maharashtra following attacks on Indian students in Melbourne.


The Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said the final decision on whether players go to the country would rest with Cricket Australia. "They [Shiv Sena] are known to make colourful remarks, and they have engaged in conduct which both India and Australia have been disapproving of in the past, so far as disrupting cricket games are concerned," he said in the Courier Mail. "But we take any threat to Australian sportsmen and sportswomen ... playing sport overseas very seriously."