Last Updated on 5 years ago by Charbel Coorey
AJ Tye leaves IPL; 2 more Aussie players considering the same | Rajasthan Royals pace bowler AJ Tye has left the IPL; another 2 Australian players could follow
Australia and Rajasthan Royals pace bowler Andrew Tye has left the IPL as India battles a severe wave of COVID-19 infections. India has recorded over one million positive cases over the past four days, with daily rates of infections now well over 300,000.
Tye wanted to avoid the risk of not being able to return home. According to reports, at least two other Australians feel the same way. This was confirmed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday morning, with Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson due to return home. This comes as the Australian government last week announced that it will reduce flights from India by 30%, and there is a chance that further restrictions will be introduced.
The BCCI remains confident that the tournament will go ahead smoothly as the franchises are in a tight bio-secure bubble. However, the concern for overseas players is getting back home once the tournament is over.
“There was a number of reasons [for leaving], but the main one was with the situation that has started to happen back home in Perth with a lot of cases in hotel quarantine coming out of India,” said Tye to SEN radio on Monday as he transited onto a flight to Sydney from Doha. “Now there’s been a community case in Perth governments are trying to restrict numbers coming back in, especially Western Australia.”
Tye also pointed out that extended periods in the bubble is challenging.
“I just thought to try and get on the front foot and get home before I got locked out of the country,” said Tye. “It’s been a long time in bubbles and hubs – doing the calculations earlier, think I’ve had 11 days at home out of the bubble since August, so for me I just wanted to get home.”
From a cricketing perspective, this year’s IPL represented an opportunity for Tye to further stake his claim for a spot in Australia’s T20 World Cup squad. With Jofra Archer out of the initial stages of IPL 2021 (and now for the whole tournament), an opportunity was made available for an overseas pacer. However, the Royals have persisted with Mustafizur Rahman, with Tye not featuring in any of the first five games.
In a special interview with CricBlog, Tye hoped that he’d get opportunities to play. You can watch the interview here or below.
