Leading Australia batsman Steve Smith on Monday (June 1) said he would be ready to participate in the 13th edition of Indian Premier League if the T20 World Cup, slated to be held down under from October 18 to November 15, gets postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
See Also: Steve Smith happy with his fitness as Australian players resume training
The BCCI is reportedly considering a September-October window to conduct the indefinitely suspended IPL 2020, which was originally scheduled to start on March 29.
Smith, who was named Rajasthan Royals' captain ahead of the scheduled season, said he would be open to travelling for the IPL if the Australian government thinks it is safe.
"I think when you're playing for your country at a World Cup, that's the pinnacle for one-day or T20 cricket, so of course I'd prefer to play in that," Smith said after returning to training with the New South Wales squad, according to PTI.
"But if that doesn't happen and the IPL's there, and they postpone it, then so be it. IPL's also a terrific tournament as a domestic tournament.
"So that's out of everyone's control at the moment, players are just doing what we're told and going where we need to go and playing whatever's on at that stage."
Last week, it was reported that Cricket Australia wrote to the International Cricket Council to reschedule the marquee tournament to 2021.
Meanwhile, the ICC has deferred a decision on the 2020 edition of the T20 World Cup till June 10, saying it wants to look at contingency plans for some more time.
"I personally haven't really thought about it, I think it'd just be going off the advice of the professionals and the governments and essentially doing what we're told.
"If that happens then great, if not then there's just so much going on in the world right now that cricket kind of seems a little bit irrelevant. So we'll get back when we're told to and until then it is sit tight, get fit and strong and freshen up mentally," said Smith.
Many World Test championship fixtures have been postponed because of the Coronavirus crisis. Once the outbreak subsides, Smith would like to see the ongoing Championship retained.
"It'd be ideal if we can keep that going. It's the first one we've had and we're all working towards hopefully playing at Lord's in mid-June (2021), we were all working towards that... "
...so it'd be good if we could carry on with that, but I don't know, everything is sort of up in the air at the moment with everything going on around the world. So we'll wait and see where everything lands," he added.
(With PTI inputs)
