Kane Richardson speculates early returns last year could have led to him and Adam Zampa going unsold in IPL auction
Maxwell, who is in the frame to captain Royal Challengers Bangalore this season, had flagged publicly after the T20 World Cup in November last year that he would miss the Pakistan tour due to his wedding in late March.
But given the early start to the IPL season, it means David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Hazlewood, Matthew Wade and Daniel Sams are all likely to be unavailable due to Australia duty in Pakistan, with the final T20I to be played on April 5.
“Originally when I organised the dates with CA there was a two-week gap where I could potentially have it,” Maxwell said. “So when I sorted that out I was pretty happy that I wasn’t going to be missing in any series. And then I came to the [CA] contract meeting midway through last year and they said well this is [when] the Pakistan series [is on] and I thought well obviously that’s changed since the last conversation we had.”
Meanwhile, Richardson, who was Player of the Match in Canberra after taking 3 for 21, spoke candidly about not being bought at the IPL auction.
Richardson was not surprised he wasn’t picked up but eyebrows were raised about Zampa being left unsold after his outstanding T20 World Cup. Richardson wondered whether the decision by the pair to leave the IPL early last year just prior to the tournament’s postponement due to Covid-19 might have had an impact.
“I was definitely more shocked for him,” Richardson said. “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.
“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.”
Richardson did stress that he hadn’t spoken to any franchises about the reasons and that he wasn’t upset about not being bought. He did hope that he hadn’t done any long-term reputational damage because he had made a decision to be with his family.
“I’m just speaking on what I think would be a factor in it,” Richardson said. “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.
“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 I’m not 100% sure.”
Alex Malcolm is an Associate Editor at ESPNcricinfo