Glenn Maxwell, star of Royal Challengers Bangalore is to miss the start of the season, for his wedding

Due to his forthcoming wedding with his Indian-origin finance Vini Raman in late March, Australian cricketer Glenn Maxwell has stated he will miss the Pakistan tour, as well as the start of the IPL 2022. Maxwell, who is in line to skipper Royal Challengers Bangalore this season, announced after the T20 World Cup in November that he would miss the Pakistan tour owing to his wedding in late March.

However, due to the IPL's early start, Maxwell, who is still in Melbourne for his wedding, would most certainly miss the start of the cash-rich league. Despite contacting Cricket Australia, he indicated to the host broadcaster Fox Cricket during the third T20I against Sri Lanka that the conflict was unavoidable owing to continual schedule changes.

"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 contract meeting midway through last year and they said well this is (when) the Pakistan series and I thought well obviously that's changed since the last conversation we had," he added.

Apart from Maxwell, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Hazlewood, Matthew Wade, and Daniel Sams are all expected to miss the first few matches of IPL 2022 owing to Australia's tour of Pakistan, according to ESPNcricinfo. The last T20I is scheduled for April 5.

Meanwhile, Kane Richardson, who was named Player of the Match in Canberra after taking 3 for 21, opened up about not being purchased in the IPL mega auction in 2022. Richardson, 31, was unsurprised he wasn't picked up, but Adam Zampa's unsigned status after a brilliant T20 World Cup raised concerns. He wondered if the pair's choice to leave the IPL early last year, shortly before the event was postponed due to Covid-19, had any bearing.

"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 stated that he had not discussed the reasons with any teams and that he was not angry about not being purchased. He hoped he hadn't done any long-term damage to his reputation by deciding to stay 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.