Australian players see 'positive' steps on IPL security

The Australian Cricketers' Association remains hopeful that its IPL security requirements can be met despite Lalit Modi's blunt criticism of players' concerns this week. The ACA chief executive, Paul Marsh, said there were positive signs that the IPL's security firm was taking seriously the list of safety issues that worried players after an independent report found that a terrorist threat against the league was credible.

"Our security adviser Reg Dickason has been working with the IPL's security adviser, Nicholls-Steyn," Marsh told Cricinfo. "They've been working for a few days now on what we've identified as the issues that have come out of various player meetings.

"Nicholls-Steyn is aware of those and they are working through the issues and we're making some positive progress. It's probably looked more positive over the last few days than what it has [before]. There's still 15 days to go before the event starts and things can happen very quickly in India, we've seen that over the years."

Marsh stressed that the Australian players involved in the IPL still wanted to go ahead and take part but as it is not a national team tour, the decision remains with the individual players. Modi has been vociferous on Twitter in the past couple of days, insisting the IPL would not "be dictated by players associations where to play" and that anyone who pulled out might be placing in jeopardy their future participation in the tournament.

Modi also had a dig at Ricky Ponting and said he had heard that Ponting was encouraging players not to go to the IPL. There had been reports that Ponting had disagreed with some senior freelance players, including Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne, at an ACA meeting on Tuesday but Marsh said the reports of a rift between players were untrue.

"I presented to the players the information that we had and opened it up for discussion … like any meeting I'd have with the players," he said. "Like just about every meeting, when you're dealing with a difficult issue, there are different points of view and there were definitely different points of view in this particular meeting. The players were completely unified on the position that they wanted to go.

"However, there was one school thinking they would only go if our security adviser, Reg Dickason who we trust, believes it's safe to go. There was another school that said it's a risk-and-reward type situation, would we go regardless. We got to a position at the end of it where we all said okay, let's put back to the IPL the things that we need so that all the players can go.

"If we can resolve those issues with them, and that is our hope, then we would expect to get to a point where our security adviser recommends that it's safe for the players to go. If we can't overcome these issues then the opposite is the most likely scenario. This is a decision to be made by each individual player."