England all-rounder Chris Woakes opened up about his decision to skip the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL 2023), despite the fact that a number of franchisees were keen on signing him and he could have gotten a sweet deal at the upcoming mini-auction on December 23 in Kochi.
Woakes missed the entire 2022 summer with injury, and his place is not certain in the England Test team, therefore he wants to make a bid for a berth in the squad for the next Ashes series by playing for Warwickshire in the County Championship and hence had to make the tough decision to skip the "financially rewarding" Indian Premier League.
Notably, the 33-year-old has so far played for KKR, RCB, and Delhi Capitals (DC) in the IPL.
Chris Woakes was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo: “It wasn't an easy decision, by any means. There's still a part of me that wishes I could go because the IPL is a great tournament and financially it could be very rewarding - but I didn't want to make the decision solely on finance.”
He added, “It's a tricky scenario: having just won a World Cup, potentially stock could be high. There are obviously some other players who are likely to go big but I could have been next on the list behind them.
I had conversations with a lot of people and some with franchises as well, who sounded keen, which made it harder to pull out. But having not played any cricket in the English summer last year, it's a good opportunity for me to set myself up for, hopefully, a really strong summer with England.”
Woakes also revealed that an honest conversation with ECB managing director Rob Key helped him make his decision regarding skipping the IPL 16.
He signed off by saying, “He was very clear that I was still a part of the Test plans but obviously I needed to get myself fit, and get my knee right.”
(With PTI Inputs)
