As Covid cases rise, players leave IPL
NEW DELHI: Anxiety pierced through IPL’S bio-secure bubble on Monday with leading Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and some Australian players withdrawing from the league amid the escalating COVID-19 crisis in India even as the BCCI insisted that the glitzy league will go on.
The 34-year-old Ashwin, competing for Delhi Capitals, decided to take a break saying that his family is currently “putting up a fight against COVID-19” and he wants to support them. He hopes to return to the side “if things go in the right direction”.
However, Andrew Tye (Rajasthan Royals) and the duo of Kane Richardson and Adam Zampa (both Royal Challengers Bangalore) withdrew as apprehension set in after a couple of weeks went by smoothly for the league being held in front of empty stands across six venues.
While Zampa and Richardson have not yet spoken about their “personal reasons” for leaving, Tye said he feared getting locked out of his own country owing to mounting quarantine cases from India in his hometown Perth. “I just thought to try and get on the front foot and get home before I got locked out of the country...think I’ve had 11 days at home out of the bubble since August, so for me I just wanted to get home,” Tye told ‘SEN Radio’ from Doha, the transit point before his flight to Perth.
The BCCI, on its part, insisted that the event will continue and it wouldn’t come in the way of those wanting to leave.
“As of now, IPL is going ahead. Obviously, if anyone wants to leave, that’s perfectly fine,” a senior Board official said on conditions of anonymity.
While leg-spinner Zampa was bought for Rs 1.5 crore, RCB spent Rs 4 crore to buy pacer Richardson at the players’ auction. Richardson featured in one match for RCB, returning figures of 1 for 29 in three overs against Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai, but Zampa couldn’t make it to the playing XI this season.
The 34-year-old Tye had also not got a game with the Royals so far and his contract with the franchise was worth Rs one crore. India is recording over 3 lakh daily cases for the past few days and the health infrastructure is struggling to handle the rise with shortage of oxygen and some crucial medicines adding to the crisis.
Kolkata Knight Riders mentor
David Hussey acknowledged that Australians in the IPL are a “bit nervous” about getting back home in the wake of the situation here. “Everyone is sort of a bit nervous about whether they can get back into Australia. I dare say there will be a few other Australians a bit nervous about getting back into Australia,” Hussey, a former Australia international, told the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’. However, not all Australians are willing to leave.
Kolkata Kinight Riders’ Rs 15 crore buy Pat Cummins said he has been advised that the Indian government views the league as a welcome distraction from the gloom. He also donated USD 50,000 to the PM CARES Funds to help oxygen supplies in hospitals.