IPL 2025: Why Australian players unwilling to come back for restart is no surprise

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 is finally set to restart after a week-long break. The tournament was suspended on 9 May due to rising security concerns across the country. But the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has now confirmed that it will resume on 17 May and the final will be held on 3 June, pushed from its earlier date of 25 May.

The IPL Governing Council held meetings on 12 May to finalise the new schedule and venues. They have decided to include only two double-headers in the revised roster and matches are set to be held across six different venues. This despite some reports earlier claiming that the tournament may take place just in the south with as many double-headers as possible to complete it before the 25th May deadline.

Uncertainity over return of Australian players

Right now, the main concern for the IPL is the availability of overseas players, especially the Australians. Cricket Australia (CA) released a statement on 13 May, saying that while they fully support the resumption of IPL 2025, they will leave the final decision to their players. If someone doesn’t feel comfortable returning to India, they will be backed by CA.

More from First Cricket

National Sports Governance Bill: All you need to know about the new bill as BCCI exempted from RTI 'CSK either got lucky or maybe the biggest master stroke': AB de Villiers hails Brevis as he highlights Chennai's luck

“Following the announcement that the IPL will resume on Saturday, Cricket Australia will support players in their individual decisions whether to return to India or not. Team management will work through preparation implications for the World Test Championship final for those players who choose to play in the remaining IPL matches. We are maintaining communication with the Australian government and BCCI around security arrangements and safety,” CA said in a statement.

This means that some top Australian players might choose not to return for the rest of the IPL, which could hurt the chances of a few teams heading into the playoffs. Mitchell Starc is one such player who is expected to miss the remainder of the tournament due to safety concerns. He is also part of the Australian WTC squad. Josh Hazlewood is another star whose return to India is in doubt. He too is part of the WTC plan.

Impact Shorts

View All

'Won't require surgery...': Real reason behind Jasprit Bumrah's absence from 5th Test revealed in new report

PCB bans players from WCL over India-Pakistan match controversy

Why shouldn’t this be a surprise?

However, this move doesn’t come as a huge surprise though. Australian players have a history of avoiding travel if they feel even slightly unsafe or uncomfortable. In 1996, Australia refused to play in Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan during the World Cup over safety fears. In 2007, they didn’t go to Zimbabwe for a bilateral series due to political issues. They have also refused to play against Afghanistan in bilaterals for political reasons.

What is even more frustrating is that many of these Australian players are among the highest-paid in the IPL. Fans online have reacted strongly, saying that backing out now could be bad for these players, especially since the BCCI had already issued a strong warning before the tournament. As per a new rule, players who pull out of IPL without a valid reason may face a two-year ban from IPL participation. England star Harry Brook has already suffered because of this.

Why Australians deserve the benefit of doubt this time?

This isn’t one of those usual cases where Australian players pull out over minor issues. The real reason why some of them are hesitant to return to India for the IPL is the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, which has raised serious safety concerns.

Mitchell Starc’s wife, Alyssa Healy, also an Australian cricketer who was in India when the IPL was suspended, has said that most Australian players are waiting for their government to officially declare India safe for travel before deciding to fly back.

“To feel comfortable for me, if I was a player in the IPL, to go back and take part in the tournament, I would be waiting for some government advisers to say yes it’s safe to go back to India right now. The Australian government needs to give it all clear for me to feel safe to go back there because it’s just a ceasefire and anything can happen at any point in time. You hope that it doesn’t and you hope that things are safe moving forward and you hope that the IPL does go ahead but I would like some reassurance before I get back on that plane,” Healy said on LiSTNR Sport.

Healy witnessed firsthand what went down behind the scenes when the IPL 2025 was suspended last week. The game between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals in Dharamsala was paused midway and the stadium was evacuated quickly when Pakistan launched strikes near border villages on 8 May.

The BCCI arranged a special train the next morning to bring back players, support staff, TV crew, and operations staff to Delhi. Most of the airports in the northern part of the country were shut down as a precautionary measure. The foreign players got scared of getting stuck in India and left the country in a hurry.

Now, the thought of travelling back to the same place might be haunting them. Australian players are not used to the fear of a full-scale war in their own country, especially since Australia doesn’t share land borders with any other nation. It will be interesting to see how many Australian stars return to fulfil their IPL obligations.