Cricket: David Warner reveals terrifying scenes in India during IPL

David Warner has opened up on the “terrifying and upsetting” scenes he witnessed in India as the Covid pandemic gripped and breached the IPL bubble.

David Warner says what he saw in India was terrifying. Picture: Instagram

David Warner says it was terrifying to witness India’s mass cremations during the humanitarian crisis which unfolded around he and the other players in the IPL before it was postponed last month.

The opening batsman was competing in the tournament along with 37 other Australian players, commentators, coaches and support staff.

Warner and his colleagues were only released from quarantine in Sydney on Monday morning.

Kayo is your ticket to the best sport streaming Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >

Former star Michael Hussey, who was coaching Chennai Super Kings, was one of a number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 after the tournament’s biosecurity bubble was breached.

When the tournament was postponed the other foreign players were free to fly home but the Australians, like 9000 fellow citizens, were trapped by a controversial border closure imposed by the federal government.

Candice Warner and David Warner doing school pick-up this week after David left hotel quarantine. Picture: Matrix Media

Warner and the players lived in an unreal world, protected from the horrors surrounding them, but became aware via television reports of people dying in the streets outside overcrowded hospitals and long queues at crematoriums — some makeshift — as people waited to burn their dead.

The worst of the crisis is passing in India but official figures recorded 120,000 deaths in May alone. Most experts believe the figure is multiples of that.

Warner, who is not expected to be among the squad which leave for Australia’s tour of the West Indies next month, was on Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa program on Wednesday morning with his wife Candice.

“I think it would really hit home when everyone saw that piece on TV about what was happening in India with the oxygen,” Warner told Nova.

“People on the streets lining up to cremate their family numbers, we did see that a couple of times going to and from the grounds”

The players’ only exposure to the realities outside the bubble were on bus rides to grounds and airports where they witnessed the cremations.

“Yeah, open fields and stuff, you know it was terrifying,” he said. “It was just really upsetting.”

Warner defended the attempt to continue the tournament during the crisis but conceded the correct decision was made when it was finally postponed.

David Warner has given an insight into his experience in India during the IPL. Picture: Instagram

“From a humanitarian point of view I think the right decision was made. It got into the bubble which was obviously going to be a challenge when we started moving, so getting on and off aircrafts, but look they did their best to try and put it on there and we know in India that everyone loves cricket.

“It was challenging, we had to get out of there ASAP.”

The Australians were flown to the Maldives where they waited for the government’s travel ban to lift.

“We were there with other people, and they were there for the same reasons, getting out of India and trying to get to that country as well because pretty much everyone was locked out of the country who had been to India,” Warner said.

Commentator and former player Lisa Sthalekar was one of the Australians trapped in the crisis and experienced the trauma of losing two members of a family she is close to.

She described the experience of leaving India in the most recent episode of the Cricket Et Cetera podcast.

“As soon as it was postponed it was all about how do we get out, how do we get out quickly because a lot of those bio bubbles had been breached and a number of players felt quite insecure and concerned about contracting Covid,” Sthalekar told the cricket podcast.

“We got to Bangalore airport and everyone was in full PPE kits, gloves and face shields and everything like that.

“It was nice to see 40-odd Australians all getting together, we hadn’t really seen each other, the players would have mingled when they played against each other but as commentators we never got a chance to really catch up with any of the players.

“Everyone was happy to see each other, there were some people you could tell were overwhelmed by everything, it had been an anxious few days and they were the quiet players among the group, you got a sense once we were on that charter flight a lot of them were relieved and as soon as we landed.

“You can understand the Australian government wants to look after Australian citizens here and we’ve done very well to keep Covid out really compared to numbers around the world Australia and NZ were light years ahead of everyone.”

Originally published as Cricket: David Warner reveals terrifying scenes in India during IPL