Threat issue will be resolved soon: Niranjan Shah

New Delhi:

The Indian Premier League officials are confident of resolving the issue of the Shiv Sena threat with regard to participation of the Australian players before the start of the Twenty20 tournament in March.

Shiv Sena had said that it will not allow Australian players to play in Mumbai in the wake of racist attacks on Indians Down Under.

IPL Chairman Niranjan Shah expressed hope that some way will be worked out and they will smoothly conduct the event.

"This is not a serious issue and we are hopeful that this issue will be resolved before the start of the tournament," he told reporters here.

Talking about snub to Pakistan players in the auction, he said it was up to the franchise owners to decide as to whom they wanted in their respective sides.

The former BCCI secretary, also said that they may give a though to changing rules pertaining to selection of under-19 players for the IPL.

Ashok Maneria, Harmeet Singh and Harshal Patel, who are yet to play first class cricket, were picked for Rs eight lakh each in the recently held auction "We are going to discuss this issue in the IPL meeting and would adopt some norms for selection of U-19 players in IPL," Shah said, adding that young cricketers should play at least few Ranji matches before being selected in IPL.