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Cricket Australia (CA) says it is investigating threats made against Australian cricketers by a far right group in India.

The Shiv Sena political party has vowed to stop Australians playing cricket in India after attacks on Indian students in Australia. The third edition of the Indian Premier League is scheduled to start in March.

The chief of Shiv Sena – which has a history of disrupting cricket fixtures – Balasaheb Thackeray said: “We will not allow kangaroo cricketers to play in Mumbai and Maharashtra until the attacks on Indians are stopped.

“Our boys are being stabbed, burnt and shot at in that country and still our cricketers have no qualms in playing with them. Do they have any national pride?”

CA public affairs general manager Peter Young insisted that all threats against Australian crickets are taken seriously.

“We have a tried and true process that we use with the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) to check all of these things,” he added.

“We do take them seriously and our policy is safety first – we never go anywhere unless we’re sure it’s safe.

“At this stage we’re not aware that there is any concern but we do like to be prudent and take a safety-first approach.

“We’ll be having a look at this particular issue given the IPL is only six, seven or eight weeks away and we’ll be providing the expertise and advice we get to players who are going there.

“At the end of the day, those players make their own decision about whether or not they go but we want them to be able to make informed decisions and we’d like to work with the ACA to ensure they can make informed decisions.”