Mitchell Starc makes emotional career call after Aussie cricketer’s tough decision with wife

• Mitchell Starc decides not to return to India for the resumption of the IPL
• Starc and his wife had a dramatic 11-hour evacuation from India last month

By JAMES COONEY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 01:21 BST, 8 June 2025 | Updated: 01:27 BST, 8 June 2025

Aussie pace bowler Mitchell Starc has made the difficult decision not to return to India for the resumption of the IPL after recently escaping the region with his wife Alyssa Healy.

The couple endured a heart-stopping evacuation from India in May due to escalating tensions with Pakistan.

Starc has chosen not to return to the world’s most popular cricket tournament, revealing that he’s content with the fact he may not be asked to play in India again.

‘I’m comfortable with my decision and how I felt about the whole situation and how it was handled,’ Starc told The Age.

‘That’s why I made my decision post-that, and my focus changed to red-ball cricket for about a week prior to coming over here (to Lord’s for the World Test Championship final). 

‘Time will tell with repercussions or how it looks with guys that didn’t return. But I’ve had my questions and concerns leading into that game, and obviously we saw what happened, which played a part in my decision.’

Mitchell Starc has made the difficult decision not to return to India for the resumption of the IPL

The sporting couple are back in Australia after an exhausting escape from India’s far north

‘There was a little bit of that to my decision around the Champions Trophy [in Pakistan]. And then once the tournament was delayed you start to think about guys’ preparation for the Test match.

‘Things were handled differently for different players and different teams, the guys up in Dharamsala, the Punjab guys were part of that, and while both teams had similar experiences up there, all those guys returned for Punjab, and Jake [Fraser-McGurk] and I chose not to. 

‘So it was a very individual decision, and I’m happy to live with whatever comes of that.’

Healy opened up on the worrying escape from India while watching her husband play in Dharamsala, in India’s far north.

‘It was a surreal experience,’ she told the Willow Talk podcast.

‘All of a sudden a couple of the light towers went out and we were just sitting there up the top waiting … we’re a large group of family and extra support staff and the next minute the guy who wrangles the group of us and gets us on the bus came up and his face was white.

‘He was like, “We need to go right now.” Then (another) guy came out and his face was white and he grabbed one of the children and said, “We need to leave right now.”

‘We were like, “what’s going on?” We weren’t told anything. We had no idea.

Healy was watching her husband’s match when the air sirens wailed at the stadium

Starc says he is OK with whatever ramifications may come from his decision

‘Next minute we are down being shuffled into this room which was like a holding pen. All the boys were in there.

‘Faf (South African cricketer Faf du Plessis) didn’t even have shoes on. We were all just waiting there looking stressed.

‘I said to Mitch, “what’s going on?” He said the town 60km away had just been smacked by some of the missiles so there was a complete blackout in the area.

‘That’s why the lights were off because the Dharamsala stadium was like a beacon at that point in time.

‘All of a sudden we’re crammed into vans and off we go back to the hotel. There was madness.’

It was decided that the best move was to evacuate the teams the following day, but Healy said that the eleven and a half hour journey back to Dehli was also disturbing.

‘We ended up going south west towards the border which was a little bit terrifying,’ Healy said.

‘Mitch and I have played too much Call of Duty and we’re noticing all the SAM sites that were just sitting there ready to go. They’re radar operated systems that shoot missiles at aircraft.

‘(We saw) a few of them on the way through in some small towns.’

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Mitchell Starc makes emotional career call after Aussie cricketer’s tough decision with wife

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