England all-rounder Chris Woakes, who has played for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), and most recently Delhi Capitals (DC) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), said it wasn’t an easy decision to opt-out of IPL 2023.
The mini auction is scheduled to be held on December 23 this year. Woakes might have been sought-after at the bidding event in Kochi. But, the 33-year-old cricketer will be instead turning up for Warwickshire in the County Championship.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, by any means. There’s still a part of me that wishes I could go because the IPL is a great tournament and financially it could be very rewarding – but I didn’t want to make the decision solely on finance.
“It’s a tricky scenario: having just won a World Cup, potentially stock could be high. Some other players are likely to go big but I could have been next on the list behind them.
“I had conversations with a lot of people and some with franchises as well, who sounded keen, which made it harder to pull out. But having not played any cricket in the English summer last year, it’s a good opportunity for me to set myself up for, hopefully, a really strong summer with England,” Woakes was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
He further revealed that ECB managing director Rob Key also contributed in his decision.
“He [Rob] was very clear that I was still a part of the Test plans, but obviously I needed to get myself fit, and get my knee right,” Woakes added.
In IPL, Woakes has featured in 21 matches in which he has taken 30 wickets at an economy of 8.97. The right-hander has scored just 78 runs with 18 being his best.