Indian Premier League cricketer Andrew Tye says the coronavirus situation in India is “harrowing”, and he is relieved to have flown home.
The 34-year-old left early on Sunday to return to Australia as India struggles with a surge in cases.
Tye said he felt “well looked after” inside the IPL’s bio-secure bubble.
But, speaking to Stumped, he added: “You’re almost cut off, it’s weird. I found in a way that I sort of lost touch with the outside world.”
The IPL – the world’s richest Twenty20 league – has faced calls for a suspension over the Covid-19 crisis.
There have been more than 300,000 cases and 2,000 deaths in India in the past 24 hours.
Crematoriums in the capital Delhi have been forced to build makeshift funeral pyres, as the city runs out of space to cremate its dead.
Since Tye – plus compatriots Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson – flew home, the Australian government has suspended flights from India.
Australians Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, David Warner, Chris Lynn and Ricky Ponting remain in the country, where more than a million Covid-19 cases have been recorded in just a few days.
Tye, whose IPL franchise the Rajasthan Royals helped him onto a flight home, will now have to quarantine in Perth.
“Inside the bubble it’s incredibly safe and we are very well looked after,” he said.
“It’s just the craziness of what’s going on outside of it, which we get incredibly well sheltered from, that’s a bit harrowing.
“You can drive through the streets and not see any of it but then you look on the news and you see what’s happening and it’s just stark in comparison to what they are actually saying.”
Zampa, who had not featured for Royal Challengers Bangalore before leaving, told Nine Networks Newspapers he wanted to put his “mental health first”.
“I feel like for anyone leaving halfway through a tournament, it’s definitely a financial sacrifice,” said the 29-year-old.
“Obviously the Covid situation over here is pretty dire. I just felt, rocking up to training and stuff, obviously I wasn’t playing in the team as well, I was going to training and I wasn’t finding the motivation.
“[There were] a few other things like bubble fatigue and the chance to get home, once all the news broke about the flights and everything – I thought this was the best time to make the call.”
