Coronavirus: Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins hopes IPL, T20 World Cup can go ahead
Kolkata Knight Riders bowler is IPL’s most expensive overseas player
Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins is holding out hope that the Indian Premier League can still go ahead this year and has only been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The IPL’s most expensive overseas player after the Kolkata Knight Riders acquired him for a staggering $2.18 million in the players’ auction in December has been anxiously witing for news of the tournament to star. It was originally scheduled for March 29, but has been deferred to April 15 and another postponement looks inevitable.
“They obviously haven’t cancelled it or anything like that yet. It’s still a bit of a holding pattern so we’re in contact with our teams every few days,” Cummins said.
“Obviously everyone is still really keen for it to go ahead, but the priority is to minimise risk of (the virus) spreading.” “The last I spoke to (franchise officials), they said they’re still really confident and hopeful it (the IPL) will be on at some stage.”
The 26-year-old also wished for the world to return to normal again before the Twenty20 World Cup in October-November and Australia’s subsequent home series against India.
“The World Cup is still six-seven months away, and the big India tour is still eight-nine months away. Lots of things can change,” he said.
“The T20 World Cup is something we’ve spoken about for the best part of two or three years,” said Cummins.
“The (ODI) World Cup in 2015, that was absolutely a career highlight for me and I wasn’t even playing in the final. I’d love to see that go ahead.
“That’s probably the big tournament this year for international cricket ... I’d love for that to happen in a perfect world and if I was to be really greedy, I’d love for the IPL to happen as well.”