Mitchell Starc declines to return to Indian Premier League citing security concerns leaving $400,000 on the table

Mitchell Starc has sacrificed close to a half-million dollars and the risk of being blackballed by the IPL by refusing to return to India due to concerns for his safety and family wellbeing.

Mitchell Starc has sacrificed $400,000 to put his safety and family wellbeing ahead of the insatiable demands of Indian cricket.

After a week of deliberation, the Australian spearhead has informed his franchise Delhi Capitals he will not return to the Indian Premier League this season after receiving a brutal insight into the frightening realities of the border conflict between India and Pakistan only seven days ago.

But, in a surprise move, tournament star Josh Hazlewood who has been battling a shoulder injury, is poised to return to help Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the finals.

Starc’s wife Alyssa Healy graphically detailed the panic experienced by Delhi and Punjab players who were urgently evacuated when the lights were cut on their match in Dharamsala last week after air raid sirens started going off from a missile attack 60km away from the stadium.

Mitchell Starc returns to Sydney from the IPL. Picture: AAP Image/Mark Kolbe

Australian players have been placed under pressure from their teams to return to finish the postponed IPL and Pakistan Super League competitions, with many pleaded with to never leave in the first place.

IPL clubs are armed with a force majeure clause in their favour which gives them the power to dock players’ pay if they fail to return for the completion of the season – and in Starc’s case, that’s set to cost him close to half a million dollars.

Add that to the estimated $15 million Starc has given up over the best part of the past decade to prioritise playing for Australia over Indian dollars signs.

The IPL has a notable history of blackballing stars who pull out of IPL contracts, but Starc has never been one to put money ahead of safety and personal reasons.

Earlier this year, it’s understood security concerns was a primary factor in Starc electing to not travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy tournament.

It’s significant that Starc’s younger Delhi teammate Jake Fraser-McGurk has also decided not to return to the IPL, reportedly shaken by the alarming situation players were put in by Indian cricket officials who decided to go ahead with the match against Punjab despite already identifying the need to move the next match scheduled to take place in Dharamasala away from the border region.

Mitchell Starc playing in the IPL. Picture: Money SHARMA / AFP

While Starc has the standing and proven world class ability to still get picked up by IPL franchises next season, Fraser-McGurk may be gambling on his future in India – and therefore his financial prospects – by choosing not to return.

The saga of the past week has illustrated the power India holds over world cricket.

It’s been widely speculated that it was India who stopped the Pakistan Super League from resuming in the UAE.

India has also pulled rank on Cricket South Africa who had attempted to put a deadline on their players leaving India in order to prepare for their World Test Championship date against Australia coming up on June 11.

Players like Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Josh Inglis and Xavier Bartlett in India and David Warner, Max Bryant and Ben Dwarshius in Pakistan are showing bravery in returning despite the confronting experiences of the past week.

Coaches Ricky Ponting, Brad Haddin and James Hopes have stoically never even left and have been crucial in keeping the competition alive.

However, there is also a different sort of valour in not returning when you know by doing so you could potentially be costing yourself millions of dollars in future earnings.

Jake Fraser-McGurk will also not return to the IPL. Picture: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP

The experiences of the likes of Starc and Fraser-McGurk who were part of the abandoned match in Dharamsala are very different to the experiences of those who were stationed in other parts of India well away from the border.

To put it simply, all players and coaches have been put in an impossible situation where there are no right or wrong answers.

Bryant is back in Pakistan despite the harrowing experience he detailed to this masthead last week of discovering the air base he flew out of with fellow players was attacked hours after his departure.

“We had a talk with a guy who was head of defence with the Pakistan Government but he did not really have the answers so that was when all of the overseas players thought ‘let’s get out of here.’”

“It was so hard to tell. That was the scariest thing. You don’t know what is happening.’’

Starc’s wife Healy told the Willow Talk Podcast she wouldn’t return to India without Australian Government assurances.

“There was a lot of anxiety around the Australian group because we didn’t have a whole heap of information as to what was going on,” Healy explained on Willow Talk.

“That’s probably been the really interesting and probably the scariest part of this whole situation is the misinformation.”