New Zealand cricketers are feeling "frustrated" by the Indian Premier League (IPL) not sharing its security plans with player associations, NZCPA chief Heath Mills said on Saturday.
"We have already approached the IPL through FICA and Tim May and the players have written to their franchises. Unfortunately, the IPL will not engage us or work with us on the issue which is frustrating for us and the players," New Zealand Cricket Players' Association chief Mills said in an e-mail interview.
"Players are coming to us for advice. However we cannot give them any quality advice at the moment about participating in the IPL as we have no information about the security situation or management plans," he added.
Mills said the IPL must directly work with the players' association to clear the apprehensions of the cricketers.
"Simply being told 'everything will be fine' is not enough and is really disappointing. The more the players through their qualified representatives understand the security assessments and management plans the better as that will give everyone more confidence in the processes being put in place to ensure players are safe," he added.
Players associations in Australia and New Zealand have been warned of potential terror attacks during this year's Indian Premier League. Asked if there is any possibility of New Zealand not participating in the IPL III, Mills said it will boil down to individual players in the end.
"I don't know yet. It will come down to individual player choice at the time but there are real concerns at the moment. The frustrating thing is that if we were able to work with the IPL directly then maybe some of the concerns could be alleviated," he said.
"The IPL is now one of the world's premier sporting events and is a credit to the BCCI and India and the players certainly want to go but we need a better understanding of the security situation and we will only get that if we can work with the organisers directly," he said.
