February 08, 2008	Friday	Muharram 29, 1429

SYDNEY, Feb 7: Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Thursday said that Cricket Australia (CA) should not come in the way of player’s participation in the cash rich Indian Premier League by raking up sponsorship issues.

Ponting said it would be “unfair” if CA stopped players from participating in the BCCI backed venture to protect its sponsors. He said CA’s interference would be opposed by the Australian Cricketer’s Association.

“There are already some globally protected sponsors of Cricket Australia, there are a couple of them,” Ponting said on the eve of the tri-series match against Sri Lanka.

“I don’t think Cricket Australia would be able to make any of their other sponsors global sponsors. If they tried to do that I’m sure the player’s association would have something to say about it. It would be a little bit unfair if that was the case,” he added.

Ponting compared IPL to English County Championship and said CA should also look at the Twenty20 series as a domestic tournament.

“It’s (IPL) a domestic competition (of India), as county cricket is. There’s never been any worry about Cricket Australia releasing guys to go and play county cricket,” he said.

“That’s the reason Cricket Australia backed it all in the first place, because it was a domestic tournament and it wouldn’t be actually taking Australian players away from their domestic competitions or the Australian team,” he added.—Agencies