Bought at the highest prize among foreign players at the auction in December last year, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) fast bowler Pat Cummins is still optimistic on the fate of the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which remains suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the Aussie pacer also understands the bigger priority for everyone at this stage is to continue the fight against the deadly outbreak.
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"Everyone is still really keen for it (IPL) to go ahead, but the priority is to minimise risk of it spreading," AAP quoted Cummins as saying.
Cummins revealed he has been in constant touch with KKR team management and administrative regime over the issue.
"It’s a holding pattern … the last I spoke to them, they were still really confident and hopeful it’ll be on at some stage," he said.
In Australia, the national team's last international assignment against New Zealand in March got indefinitely postponed and its mid-year tours to England, Bangladesh are also under serious danger. This, whenever the situation improves, is likely to result in a very cramped schedule.
"This year’s going to look very different to what we’ve seen before … there are so many scenarios," Cummins said. "Unless things improve, I can’t really see many tournaments going on anywhere in the world for a little while."
More than 53,000 people have globally died because of the virus that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, forcing countries to opt for lockdown and the world to come to a standstill.
“It’s awful seeing things like (they are) – Italy and Spain, but now America and the UK in recent days – it’s just crazy how quickly it’s developed. Obviously got a lot of family over in England at the moment and speaking to them regularly,” Cummins said.
“Speaking to a few close mates who play county cricket over there, they’ve gone through the whole pre-season and geared up for the start of their summer," he added. "They’re now staring down the barrel of potentially their whole summer of cricket being over … the health risk is a big one, but those guys basically have to put their careers on hold."
(Inputs from AAP)
