England’s white-ball captain, Harry Brook, finally broke his silence on being banned from the Indian Premier League (IPL) for two years. The right-handed batter was slated to represent Delhi Capitals in IPL 2025 after being picked up at the mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. However, days before the start of the tournament, the 26-year-old announced his decision to pull out.
Before the start of the IPL 2025, the governing council introduced a new rule, saying a player will run the risk of being banned from the competition for two years if he pulls out at the last minute after being picked up in the auction.
“Any player who registers in the auction and, after getting picked, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for 2 seasons,” the rule states.
Harry Brook was recently confirmed as England’s white-ball captain, taking over the reins from Jos Buttler. While speaking to reporters in Headingly, Brook confirmed that he will miss franchise competitions to focus on his England career.
When asked about him being banned from the IPL, the right-handed batter said, “They haven’t told me. But if I do get banned, fair play. That’s the rules they put in place, but I’m completely committed to playing cricket for England.”
“So, to lose a little bit of money here and there, I’d take that any day to play for England. I won’t be playing any franchise cricket in the near future and I’ll be prioritising England and whatever games we have with them,” he added.
Pulling out of IPL wasn’t easy
Brook also said that pulling out of IPL wasn’t easy but he had to make that decision considering the amount of international cricket coming up. England are slated to play India in a five-match Test series, and then the side will also travel to Australia for the Ashes.
“Having this period after deciding to pull out of the IPL was the right decision for me. It wasn’t an easy decision, obviously, but I’ve got to try and manage my workload. I’ve played a hell of a lot of cricket over the last year and a half and it’s only going to be more going forward,” said Brook.
“I’m not sure how much franchise cricket I’ll be playing in the near future, but my priority is definitely playing for England and trying to play as much cricket for England as I can,” he added.
Earlier, Brook was picked up by Delhi Capitals for INR 6.25 crore in the mega auction. However, he decided to pull out of IPL 2025 owing to his commitments with the England team.
Brook shared a statement on Instagram: “I have made the very difficult decision to pull out of the upcoming IPL. I apologise unreservedly to the Delhi Capitals and their supporters.”
“It is a really important time for England cricket, and I want to fully commit to preparing for the upcoming series,” he added.