IPL 2021: List of top cricketers who are set to back out of tournament even if not paid

Last week, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to suspend the IPL 2021 with immediate effect after several players featuring in the tournament tested positive for COVID-19. The first COVID-19 cases in IPL 2021 emerged in the KKR team when Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier tested positive for coronavirus. KKR team was followed by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) whose CEO Kasi Viswanathan, bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji and designated bus cleaner tested positive for the ungodly virus.

England and Australian players unlikely to take part in remainder of IPL 2021

With more than INR 2500 crore at stake, the BCCI will do everything in its power to stage the remainder of IPL 2021 in the current year. However, with a jam-packed international cricketing calendar, there is still a huge cloud of uncertainty looming over the presence of several top overseas players for the second half of the tournament.  Let's take a look at the top cricketers who are most likely to back out of the latter half of the competition.

David Warner

Warner, who led SRH to glory in IPL 2016, was stripped off the franchise's captaincy midway during the IPL 2021. The Men in Orange had a disastrous IPL 2021 campaign as they finished at the bottom in the IPL 2021 points table before the tournament was abruptly suspended midway due to COVID-19 cases in the bio-bubble. Out of the seven matches they played, SRH lost six and won a solitary game.

Moreover, after the sixth match, the SRH management also sacked David Warner from captaincy and handed it over to Kane Williamson, a move that faced a lot of criticism from the IPL fans. The Australian was subsequently dropped from SRH's playing XI and the franchise's head coach Trevor Bayliss had also made it clear that Warner will not be in their scheme of things in the near future.

Should the BCCI host the event post the T20 World Cup this year, the batsman might either be discouraged himself from spending another month in an overseas country in a bio-bubble away from his family or Cricket Australia might insist that he train for the iconic Ashes series at home, scheduled to begin from the end of November this year. As a result, Warner's return for the remainder of IPL 2021 looks unlikely.

The Australian scenario could apply to the likes of Steve Smith and Pat Cummins as well, who are in Australia's Test team and were an integral part of the DC and KKR teams this season respectively. Even Australia's T20 specialists such as Glenn Maxwell, Chris Lynn and Daniel Sams might find it difficult to play due to the Big Bash League scheduled in the second week of December, also considering the bio-bubble restrictions in place. It is worth to be mentioned that players pulling out at any stage of the tournament means that they will not be paid for the entire season.

Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow etc.

If the remainder of the IPL 2021 is schedule is arranged in September, the availability of top England players like Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow among other for the competition is unlikely. From mid-September, England are slated to tour Bangladesh and Pakistan in order to prepare for the T20 World Cup and England players featuring in the IPL 2021 cannot be in two places at the same time, which is why ECB will have to take a big call. Notably, the ECB had promised the BCCI that their centrally-contracted players would feature throughout the IPL 2021, however that was on the assumption that the whole tournament would be hosted between April 9 and May 30.

Furthermore, the T20 World Cup 2021 will be played in India from October 18 - November 15. After the marquee event, England will tour Australia for the Ashes, which will restrict top players of both countries from featuring in the IPL 2021 if it ended up being played in November-December.

SOURCE: IPLT20.COM