A day after IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi cautioned that Australian players could miss out on lucrative contracts if CA didn't soften its stance on sponsor promotion, skipper Ricky Ponting issued a thinly-veiled warning to CA.

Asked if the Australian players might rise up in arms in Cricket Australia insisted on promotion of its own sponsors during the IPL, resulting in the players missing out on playing in the IPL, Ponting said on Thursday, “There are already some globally protected sponsors of Cricket Australia, no more than a couple. I don't think CA will be able to make any of their other sponsors global sponsors. I am sure if they try to do that, the Players' Association will have something to say about it. It will be a little bit unfair if that was the case.”

The Australian Board had expressed concerns over its contract holders endorsing products clashing with its own supporters, evoking a typically strong response from Modi. “Cricket Australia wants global protection of its sponsors, we are not interested in that. If Cricket Australia continues these demands, they will cause their players to suffer,” Modi thundered, adding that individual player deals would not be affected. “We have no issue at all with personal sponsors of players.”

The fact is that the IPL is a domestic tournament and players will be turning out for clubs and not representing Australia. The IPL believes in that scenario, the CA is naive to expect its sponsors to be promoted during the tournament. Adam Gilchrist, it is believed, must sign his contract by Friday or risk missing out. Ponting said he didn't see any reason why CA would prevent the stumper, for whom a two-year moratorium on retiring players has been set aside, from playing in the IPL.

“The only think I can think of is if there is any conflicting sponsorship Cricket Australia might be worried about. The IPL is a domestic competition, as County cricket is. There never really has been any worry about CA releasing players to play County cricket. That's the reason why CA backed IPL in the first place — because it is a domestic tournament, it wouldn't be actually taking Australian players away from their domestic competition or the Australian team. Gilly right at the moment will probably be only one in Australia who will be eligible to play this year anyway.”

The terms of player contracts are also a matter of debate, with IPL insisting they were forwarded to CA chief executive James Sutherland and the players two months ago and CA saying it was awaiting details.

“I haven't seen mine,” Ponting acknowledged. “It's probably sitting in my e-mail account somewhere. I have been a bit scared the last couple of weeks to go into it actually, and open up what's in there! But I am sure Gilly has seen his.”