'I Said To Zampa, Look, This May Come Back And Bite Us': Richardson Opens Up About Being Unsold In IPL Auction

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Australia fast bowler Kane Richardson said him along with Adam Zampa leaving IPL 2021 midway was a 'definite' factor for them not getting picked in the recently held IPL Mega Auction.

Kane Richardson, who was Player of the Match in Canberra after taking 3 for 21 just a day after the auction, also spoke candidly about not being bought by any franchise for the cash-rich league. 

The 31-year old Richardson was not surprised he wasn't picked up but eyebrows were raised about Adam Zampa being left unsold after his outstanding T20 World Cup. He wondered whether the decision by the pair to leave the IPL early last year just before the tournament's postponement due to Covid-19 might have had an impact.

"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," Richardson said.

"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," he added.

Richardson also mentioned 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 decided to be with his family.

"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," the pacer 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 the 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," he added.