As the Indian Premier League carnival prepares to hit the South African shores, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has warned his players against letting the cash-rich tournament cloud their minds during the ODI series against the Proteas here.

Australia and South Africa play a five-match ODI series starting today till April 17 and the IPL starts April 18.

Ponting said any player who gets distracted by the IPL would not be able to do well.

“I’d like to think that the guys have solely got their minds on what they need to have their minds on for the next couple of weeks,” said the skipper.

“The IPL will start up once our tournament is over. Whenever you are representing Australia, if you have a clouded mind on anything at all then you are not going to play your best cricket. I haven’t heard that around the group, any talk about the IPL whatsoever.

“We know that we’ve got a lot of guys coming out from Australia who will be arriving in South Africa very soon to start their preparations for the IPL. The moment I hear any of that stuff creeping in, it will be addressed,” he added.

Defending champions Rajasthan Royals will be the first to land here and based in Cape Town from next week.
Source – cricketnext.in.com