Melbourne: With the BCCI having to postpone the 13th edition of the IPL due to the coronavirus outbreak, quite a few players are sad even though they understand that there is no other option at present and one of them is Delhi Capitals’ Australian recruit Alex Carey.
"At this stage, it's looking likely that (IPL) might not go ahead. It would be nice to be in Delhi playing cricket it was my first time selected to be part of the IPL. I'm still really positive.
"I'm sure the world will move in the way we want it to, and there's still that hope later in the season the IPL will go ahead and the (men's T20) World Cup (scheduled for Australia), but we'll wait and see," Carey was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia.
Interestingly, another Australian, RCB coach Simon Katich has said that his team would also be open to the idea of playing the IPL outside India.
"Whether it would be in Australia (or elsewhere), that's an interesting topic of conversation. There would be a few teams - us in particular at RCB, we'd be very happy for it to be played abroad, because a number of our overseas players are Australian and South African, who really would enjoy these conditions in Australia.
"It would be interesting to see if that would eventuate but obviously it's one of many scenarios that's being discussed. It's obviously the biggest T20 tournament in the world and the people there love their cricket. But I think they're also realistic to know that they have to sit tight and wait like everyone else in the world, and ride this out however long that takes.
"There is a huge economic side to this in terms of what the IPL generates, not only for the Indian economy but also for the franchises as well, and for the BCCI. I guess the thing that has to be weighed up is there's probably a little bit of a difference in terms of the IPL. Because of the amount of eyeballs that are on the IPL in India when it's on in April and May, it is a scenario where it is potentially still very commercially viable being played with empty stadiums, so that's something no doubt they'll be weighing up.
"In the past, there's been talk of rating figures of 80 million people watching games. At the same time, there's obviously a lot of health regulations that need to be followed to make sure that no-one's endangered, whether that's the public or the players and support staff," he said.
