No regrets over playing in IPL for paceman Jordan

CHRIS Jordan will be one of the last England players to return home from the Indian Premier League but the paceman does not regret his decision to take part in a tournament he hopes offered some relief to a population in the grip of a coronavirus crisis.

While eight of the 11-strong English contingent flew back yesterday, ready to begin a 10-day quarantine in governmentapproved hotels, Jordan was awaiting departure from Ahmedabad, alongside Punjab Kings team-mate Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan. All three were expected to be on their way soon and Jordan accepts suspending the tournament was inevitable as soon as three franchises reported positive cases inside their camps.

“It’s a real shame to see what the people in India are going through,” he told PA news agency. “You monitor the situation on a daily basis and everyone’s done everything possible to keep the bubbles secure. I’d say I’ve felt safe the whole time here; they have so many things put in place and precautions being taken.

“The next step now is getting out safely and I’m sure they’ll see to that as well, but it might take another day or two. Obviously the last couple of days some new cases came to the fore, a couple of bubbles were breached, and that kind of thing starts to dominate conversations. It was always going to be difficult to continue and I think in the end the right call was made.”

Jordan backed the organisers suggestion that sport offered a welcome diversion from the stress of the pandemic. He said: “It means a lot to people over here to watch their favourite players and their teams on TV each night. Knowing there was so many people out there watching and hoping you could bring a smile to their faces.”