CANBERRA: Australia pacer Kane Richardson has said that probably leaving the Indian Premier League (IPL) season midway last year was the reason behind him and Adam Zampa going unsold in the mega auction this year.
Zampa and Richardson who were playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) last season decided to leave IPL midway during the India phase after COVID-19 cases started rising in India and there were doubts regarding whether Australia will allow any travellers or not.
"I was definitely more shocked for him. To be brutally honest, when we left last year, in the circumstances early, I remember having a conversation with him. I said to him, look, this may come back and bite us, and at that time it wasn't a priority for us to be there. We wanted to get back to Australia," ESPNcricinfo quoted Richardson as saying.
"So I think there'd be some kind of buyers that'd be pretty wary of picking us up thinking that we wouldn't come again. I definitely think that's a factor. I'm just speaking on what I think would be a factor in it. I don't know. I've never had a dialogue with a franchise or a person that says that's what would be the case. But I think I didn't go the year before as well with the birth of my boy," he added.
Further talking about the IPL, Richardson said: "So my reputation probably is that in the last couple of years I haven't gone so it's obviously not something that I am. I try and play as much cricket as I can. But I think the circumstances in the last couple of IPLs have made me not go. But it's not a reputation I want."
"So that's just us brainstorming. I think that'd be a point of them being wary of us turning up, but I'm not 100 per cent sure," he added.
Richardson starred with the ball for Australia in the third T20I against Sri Lanka as the hosts gained an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
The pacer took a three-wicket haul and he was adjudged as Player of the Match.