PERTH: Indian Premier League had the potential to lure away senior players, according to Australian captain Ricky Ponting who said the cash-rich Twenty20 venture should have a fixed time slot to ensure world cricket was not drained of experience.

"If a guy is approaching the end of his international career anyway, and being able to play 44 days and stay in one form of the game, I'm sure is very attractive," Ponting said.

"Particularly, if they have families and they are getting a bit sick and tired of the travel you do with international cricket, I am sure that is appealing to you," he said. But, Ponting felt, a proper schedule management to allow international players to participate in IPL might prevent their feared swaying from the international scene.

"There are some programming issues the ICC and the boards are going to have to look at, may be carving out a window each year when this tournament can sit in. "Unless some time is given up then we might start losing the 33, 34-year-old players from international cricket," he said.

More than 80 international cricketers have signed over to BCCI hosted IPL so far.

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