Pawar, Manohar meet Shiv Sena

Sunday, February 7, 2010 -- The ICC President in the waiting, the Indian political party, the Nationalist Congress Party’s chief, Sharad Pawar met up with the Shiv Sainik chief, Bal Thackeray and his son Uddhav in connection with the safety concerns for the Australian players.

The Shiv Sainiks had earlier said that they will not allow any Australian player to play in the Indian Premier League as retaliation to the attacks on the Indians in Australia.

Pawar was given company by the current BCCI chief, Shashank Manohar, and the meeting lasted for about two hours.

Earlier, the Shiv Sena had written in his newspaper, Saamna, that the ‘kangaroo cricketers’ were not welcome in Mumbai. Even the other political party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) said that they will not allow any Australians to play in Mumbai.

According to Manohar, the pair from the BCCI spoke to the Thackerays and explained them the format of the tournament. They also said that there will be one or two Australian cricketers who would play for the Mumbai Indians in the tournament.

It remains to be seen what would be the effect of this meeting on the Sainiks’ stand. Only earlier, they had backed out of the Shah rukh Khan controversy having earlier said that they will not allow his film to be shown in Mumbai. SRK had said that he felt that the Pakistani cricketers should have been picked for the IPL.