Starc: ‘I chose family and country over IPL’

Mitchell Starc is playing for Australia in the West Indies because he didn’t take IPL cash while those who did rest at home.

Australian paceman Mitchell Starc has shunned the riches of the IPL

Mitchell Starc says his decision to skip the IPL and focus on national duties was a deliberate one, but he can’t speak for anyone else.

Starc could have earned up to $3 million a year had he opted for the IPL auctions but for a number of reasons passed up the money.

He now finds himself playing for match payments on a tour of the West Indies when half a dozen of his teammates have opted out following stints at the IPL.

“Certainly one of the reasons over the last few years that I haven’t been going to the IPL is to have that time to refresh and be the best I can for Australia,” Starc said from the West Indies. “I can’t speak for other people, but that’s certainly how I’ve approached it, spending time with family.

“Obviously Alyssa and I both have conflicting schedules and that is some of the only time we get to spend time together and with family, that’s how I’ve approached it; wanting to play as much as I can across the formats for Australia first and foremost, everyone is going to be in a different boat, as I said I can’t speak for other players but that’s certainly how I’ve approached it.”

Seven players who were at the IPL withdrew from the West Indies tour for various reasons.

Starc, as revealed recently in The Australian, is ranked fourth in the 2021-22 contract list behind Pat Cummins, Steve Smith and David Warner.

Smith, who returned from the IPL with an elbow injury and was not available for the tour of the West Indies, said during the week that he would choose to skip the T20 World Cup in October if it hampered his recovery and opt instead for this summer’s Ashes.

“There’s still a bit of time between now and (the T20 World Cup), and I’m tracking OK at the moment – it’s slow, but I’m going OK,” Smith told cricket.com.au.

“I’d love to be part of the World Cup, for sure, but from my point of view, Test cricket, that’s my main goal – to be right for the Ashes and try to emulate what I’ve done in the last few Ashes series I’ve been involved in.”

Smith’s form in the past three Ashes has been nothing short of extraordinary and he says he is determined to keep that up in 2022-23.

“I want to put myself in a position where I can have that kind of impact,” he said.

“If that does mean not partaking in the World Cup, then we‘ll have to go down that path, but hopefully we don’t have to go there.”

Players at the T20 World Cup could be occupied until November 14 if they make the finals which would make it almost impossible to play the first Test in Hobart on November 27 against Afghanistan if two weeks quarantine is served.

There is a very real prospect of Smith, Warner, Starc, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood being unavailable for that match.

Red ball exposure ahead of the Tests will be extremely limited.

White ball captain Aaron Finch is another who has looked uncomfortable with players skipping the West Indies series because of IPL duties. He suggested it would not be a good idea for them to return for the second half of the interrupted domestic tournament.

“I think they would find it hard to justify going back and playing that second half of the IPL,” he told SEN recently.

“Just purely based on the workload coming up with a T20 World Cup and a huge home summer.

“It’s really tough. It’s a tough situation that everyone has been put in, but personally I would find it hard to do that knowing how difficult it is and how challenging it is mentally, and on your family as well. That’s what I would think.”

Starc admits that the pandemic has made life more difficult for players like him who compete in all three formats.

“For the few multi-format players we all want to play as much cricket as we can. Test match cricket is certainly the pinnacle for a lot of us, certainly for me as is the World Cup, so it’s going to be hard to pick and choose between the two of them but I guess that’s what’s to come for players and Cricket Australia,” he said.

“We are certainly well practised at quarantining and isolating in bubbles, but no doubt there’s some fatigue that comes to it throughout 12 months of that, it is certainly one of the reasons I took the option not to go to the IPL was to make sure I was ready to go and mentally and physically prepared to play for Australia and to not opt out tours.”