MUMBAI: Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has vowed to help Australian players make informed decisions after more threats were made by Maharashtra's right wing Shiv Sena against Australian cricketers during the 84th birthday celebrations of its patriarch Bal Thackeray.

“As I understand it the comments are largely related to IPL which is an event coming up soon where a number of Australian cricketers and state cricketers will be involved. Our perspective on that is pretty simple, we're saddened to hear people taking this sort of approach. We really believe cricket should be and can be a real bridge between communities all around the world,” a cautious Sutherland said in Sydney on Monday.

For the second time in a month, the Shiv Sena has cast doubt over the safety of players at the lucrative Twenty20 tournament after it promised to disrupt fixtures involving Australians.

The threat comes in the wake of multiple attacks against people of India-origin and the student community in particular in different parts of Australia in the recent past, which has also resulted in deaths of some students. Earlier, the Shiv Sena had warned the IPL organisers to ban Australian players from playing in Mumbai as well as its home state of Maharashtra.

The bidding for the third edition of the IPL, which happened earlier this month, saw franchises ignoring Australian players during the bid process due to the same factor so as to avoid any disturbance during the IPL which might have arise due to participation of Aussie players.

“The great love of cricket that Australians have and Indians have is something that we share and can be a really contributing factor to us as people getting closer together. The real issue is for our players to understand the gravity of the situation and we will do our own research, talking to the security people we ordinarily talk to, government and other private sources, to really make a judgement and ensure our players are as best informed as possible before they take steps to go and play the IPL,” he added further.

Asked if CA would move to prevent individuals from taking part, Sutherland conceded the ultimate decision lies with the players, “I think we're probably getting a little ahead of it. Certainly IPL is a different situation to an Australian cricket team tour of India, and it's a decision very much for the players. But we'll work closely with the players and the Players' Association to ensure that everyone has the best possible information about this. And I'm sure the IPL and the BCCI will also be very closely supportive of us in making sure we've got the best information available,” he said.

It remains to be seen how the BCCI and the IPL work their way out to ensure an incident free tournament.