'A little bit': Pat Cummins admits Australian PM Scott Morrison's comments on their return from IPL 2021 were shocking
IPL 2021: Australian Pacer Pat Cummins said PM Scott Morrison's comments on their return were shocking.
After the Indian Premier League Governing Council (IPL GC) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to postpone IPL 2021 season with immediate effect due to the Covid-19 crisis in India, a huge question mark remains on how the Australian contingent (players, coaches and support staff included) are going to return home.
Australian PM Scott Morrison shocked his fellow countrymen taking part in IPL 2021 when he said that no special flights will be arranged to bring them back as they had travelled on their own arrangements. With flights from India banned until May 15 at least, very testing times lie ahead for the Australians. Morrison also announced Australians attempting to return home who had been in India faced jail time.
ALSO READ| End of the road for IPL 2021
Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Pat Cummins admitted that while they were taken aback by threats of jail time and hard border closure with Indian, the Australian contingent knew what they had signed up for.
Asked whether the prime minister’s comments came as a shock, Cummins admitted they did.
“Yeah it did a little bit,” he said.
ALSO READ| T20 WC: IPL postponement won't deter India's chances to host event
“Once we flew out of Australia we knew we were signing up for 14 days quarantine coming home, so you always feel that little bit further away from getting home.
“As soon as the hard border shut, obviously no-one has experienced that before. It added a bit of anxiety for a few of the Aussies over here. But we signed up to play the tournament until the start of June. Hopefully it all reopens on May 15 and we’ll be able to get back," added Cummins while speaking to Fox Sports’ The Back Page.
The speedster also commented that IPL GC and BCCI's decision to conduct the tournament across different cities was something that could have been done differently.
ALSO READ| 'Positive cases happened in supposedly the safest place': BCCI on IPL suspension
“Last year we had the IPL held over in the UAE and that was an incredibly well-run tournament,” the Australian vice-captain said.
“This year, they tried to push it that little step further and have it over here in multiple cities in India. I’m sure looking back they might have tweaked a few things," explained Cummins.