Mitchell Starc's 'IPL circus' remark before KKR stint under Gautam Gambhir sends shockwaves

Indian Premier League’s most expensive entity, Mitchell Starc possibly took a cryptic dig towards the richest T20 league of the world with the latest interview he gave to cricket.com.au. Starc before hailing IPL as the best franchise league, stated that it’s “always a bit of a circus” and by that, he could be trying to demean the tournament where he is returning for the first time since 2018.

Mitchell Starc, before he was made the most expensive player ever by 2-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders during the auctions last year, had played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2014 and 2015. He had pulled himself out of the tournament in 2016 and 2017 but he did enroll himself for the player auctions for the 2018 edition.

It were the Kolkata Knight Riders only who had placed the final bid of INR 8 crore during the 2018 auction but Mitchell Starc had refused to join the team right before the season. And since then, he hasn’t returned. But this year after garnering massive interest and eventually landing a 24.75 crore deal, Starc is set to join the KKR camp in a few days.

What did Mitchell Starc say?

While speaking to Cricket Australia recently, Starc firstly expressed his excitement to return to playing in the richest league of the world, and that too for KKR where he was supposed to be in 2018. Starc also expressed that it’s been a long time since he played in a league like this and that he is going to enjoy the next few months working with some new people.

“It’s been 8 years, I think. Back to KKR where I was supposed to be in 2018. So I’ll be back there for the chance to pull on the gold and purple. I guess my memories are a few and far between of back in 2014 and 2015 with RCB but yeah, really excited to get stuck in. Obviously, a new group of players. A bunch of guys I certainly haven’t met or been able to work with before,” Starc said via Cricket.com.au.

Then came the controversial part. Michell Starc stated that IPL 2024 is going to be a nice challenge for him to have but he didn’t reveal that he will try to gain some very good game time ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup later this June. Starc then said that it’s a little bit of circus playing in the best T20 league and that he is looking forward to the season.

“A couple of guys that I’ve, international guys that I’ve played against and come across. Yeah, it’s gonna be exciting. It’s definitely a new challenge. But yeah, it’ll be exciting. It’s always a bit of a circus when it is the best T20 league in the world. So, yeah I look forward to it,” Mitchell Starc concluded.

KKR Full squad for IPL 2024