Former India cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra slams the England players for pulling out on the second half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season.
Aakash Chopra slams England Cricketers
Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes and Jonny Bairstow have decided to skip the remainder of IPL 2021 due to personal reasons while Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, and Jos Buttler will be missing the tournament as well due to various reasons.
“Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes – they were already not coming. But now Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes and Jonny Bairstow have also taken their name back. That means half a dozen English players will not be part of the IPL. It has been a mass exodus. The IPL family doesn’t forget.
“The English players will have to keep this thing slightly in mind that when you pull out your name from an IPL season, the franchise that has bought you feels cheated, they feel you have been betrayed by them,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
There will still be 10 England players who will take part in the IPL 2021.
Moeen Ali (Chennai Super Kings) and Sam Curran (CSK) are set to leave for Dubai soon and will be joined by Tom Curran (DC), George Garton (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Eoin Morgan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Chris Jordan (PBKS), Adil Rashid (PBKS), Liam Livingstone (RR), Sam Billings (DC) and Jason Roy (SRH).
“Of course, these are tough times. We do understand all of that but it remains in the mind that I had gone with you and had created my strategy after a lot of thinking, you were an important cog of my wheel, but the cog has left.
“This means when the auction happens the next time, they have an elephant’s memory, they will definitely not forget who all had come and who all left. And because of this when they say that Mitchell Starc will be paid a lot, it is possible he may not get it because when you take back your name twice it remains in the mind of all teams,” Chopra concluded.
IPL 2021 was initially postponed indefinitely after just 29 matches in May due to the second wave of Covid-19 in India.
But the Indian cricket board (BCCI) was able to find out a window to slot in the remaining 31 games to complete the season and thus, decided to take the tournament to the UAE where it will be played from September 19 to October 15 in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Oman.
Also read: List of Players Withdraw from 14th Edition of IPL
