Pawar fails to sway Thackeray on Australian players, for now

The fate of Australian players in the Indian Premiere League (IPL) is still uncertain.

NCP chief and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday failed to make Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray change his stand on not allowing Australian cricketers to play in the IPL. But Thackeray has agreed to take a final call after watching a presentation by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The decision to make a presentation was taken at a meeting between Pawar and Thackeray at ‘Matoshree’ in Bandra on Sunday. Pawar reached Mumbai from Aurangabad at 7pm and headed for Matoshree along with BCCI president Shashank Manohar. Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray too was present at the two-hour meeting.

“We told Balasaheb that the Australian team will not participate in the IPL, but each IPL team will have one or two Australians,” Manohar said. “He asked us to give a presentation on how many Australian players will play in the IPL. We accepted his demand. We will make the presentation in a day or two. After that he will make his stand clear.”

Sena leader and Saamna executive editor Sanjay Raut, who too was present at the meeting, said Thackeray would make an announcement in the next two days.

Earlier in the day, while addressing the NCP cadre in Aurangabad Pawar said, “I will request Balasaheb not to mix sports with politics.” He did request Thackeray to allow the Australian cricketers to play, but Thackeray, a source said, turned down the request.

Pawar is set to take over the reins of the International Cricket Council (ICC) later this year from David Morgan. A BCCI source said if Pawar manages to convince Thackeray, it will boost his image at the ICC. “If the Australians play the matches in Maharashtra, the credit will go to him,” the source said.

Political analysts felt Pawar met Thackeray to counter Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Though the Sena had threatened to oppose Gandhi, the party’s protests were more a whimper when Gandhi visited the city on Friday.

Political analyst Pratap Asbe, however, said, it was unlikely that the Pawar-Thackeray meeting would have any effect on what Gandhi achieved during his visit. “Rahul won the match single-handedly.”
On December 23, 2007, Pawar had met Thackeray and requested him not to oppose Pakistani cricketers in the IPL’s first season in March 2008. Subsequently, the Sena had dropped its plan of opposing the Pakistani players.