Australia prioritises Pakistan tour over IPL, players to miss a few matches

The Australian team will prioritise their national duty and several prominent players from Australia will miss out the first few matches of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 action due to the series against Pakistan.

Read More – Australia announces full-strength squad for Pakistan tour

Australian skipper Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, David Warner and others are all included in the auction. Cricket Australia (CA) laid down a strong ruling that their players were not allowed to abandon international duty for the IPL.

Earlier, George Bailey, Australia’s chairman of selectors had said that IPL is a good enough “development opportunity” but CA would not release players when Australia was playing.

“We do see the IPL as a really good development opportunity when it fits, but there’s obviously a huge amount of cricket with a series (in Sri Lanka) planned for immediately-post the IPL as well.”

He later reiterated and passed a clear ruling on the matter.

“So, it will be about working with the individuals to ensure they’re getting the preparation they need, but we certainly won’t be releasing players to the IPL while Australia are playing.”

The Test leg of Australia’s tour of Pakistan, featuring three matches, is scheduled to end on March 25. Australia will then play a three-match ODI series in Rawalpindi, which will also host the only T20I on April 5. In an e-mail to the franchises on Wednesday, the IPL said Cricket Australia had permitted players who were part of both the Test and white-ball leg in Pakistan, to travel from April 6.

This is a clear statement to IPL and to world cricket that Australia has refused to surrender to BCCI’s foothold in the cricketing world.

The series is set to kickoff with the first Test match to be played on March 4 in Rawalpindi.