The 33-year old 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.

 

However, given the early start to the IPL season, Maxwell, who still will be in Melbourne due for his wedding, will likely miss the beginning of the cash-rich league. He explained to the host broadcaster Fox Cricket during the third T20I against Sri Lanka that the clash was unavoidable due to the constant schedule changes, despite consulting Cricket Australia.

 

"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," he added.

 

Apart from Maxwell, the likes of David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Hazlewood, Matthew Wade and Daniel Sams are also likely to be unavailable for first few matches of IPL 2022 due to Australia duty in Pakistan, with the final T20I to be played on April 5, an ESPNcricinfo report said.

 

Meanwhile, Kane Richardson, who was Player of the Match in Canberra after taking 3 for 21, also spoke candidly about not being bought at the IPL auction.

 

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.