Moeen Ali will be among a handful of the international cricketers who will not be returning to India to play in the Indian Premier League, which restarted on Saturday after a nine-day halt due to the India Pakistan conflict. For the England cricketer, the start of hostilities between India and Pakistan earlier this month was un-nerving since he had family members in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) while he was in India with his wife and kids.
The 2025 season came to a standstill with the game between and halted abruptly in the first innings in Dharamsala after blackouts in certain parts of the country.
Talking about his own anxious response to the escalation between India and Pakistan, said on the Beard Before Wicket podcast: “My parents were actually in Kashmir at the time… in Pakistan, only about an hour away from where the strikes happened probably. Maybe a bit farther. So it was a bit crazy and then they managed to get the only flights out actually on that day. I was glad they got out, but it was crazy.”
Then recalling his own experience in India, Moeen Ali said: “It was mad, obviously there were those attacks in Kashmir before everything really kicked off. Then within no time things just rapidly escalated and all of a sudden we’re in the middle. It felt like we’re in the middle of a war, but obviously we didn’t hear anything (like missiles striking). All of a sudden you’re just scrambling to get out of the country and just to make sure obviously your family’s fine. People are worried about you back home and just to make sure they’re at ease as well.”
Asked what was going on with the players after the Punjab Kings vs Delhi Capitals game was suspended mid-way, with the league then getting suspended for a week, Moeen Ali said: “People weren’t quite sure what was happening and how things were like. I spoke to a lot of the guys. Some of the guys were like ‘there won’t be a war, everything will be fine. These things have happened before’. Some guys were like, ‘I think there’ll be a war, I think there’ll be some sort of retaliation or whatever you want to call it’. There’s so much lying going on, that it’s hard to believe people — the news outlets in particular and the journalists. You don’t know exactly what’s going on, so that’s the scary bit because you don’t know what’s exactly going on, you don’t know where to stand, you don’t know if things are going to kick off quickly. The thing that we were worried about is flights getting cancelled and we can’t get out. But it must be so hard for the local players or the guys who are Pakistani or Indians stuck in there not knowing what’s going to happen.”
Moeen Ali, who has Pakistani roots, also spoke about his decision to leave even before the IPL was postponed by a week.
“So the night before they cancelled it… I’m one of those who doesn’t care what we’re playing in the IPL or the PSL. What’s important is to be safe. Or try and be as safe as possible. I mean you’re never safe anywhere in the world. But try to obviously protect your family and kids as much as you can. All that kind of stuff and just make sure everything’s good. I was just out (of the tournament) before they even cancelled it to be honest. To be honest I wasn’t well, so I was really sick at the same time. So I reckon I had some viral thing or whatever it was. I was really really bad, and I was just out. I was just making sure like I was fit enough to just get out of there,” said Moeen Ali.
Moeen Ali also praised the organisers and the franchise for taking really good care of them.
“They looked after us really well. They were like ‘Whatever you want, whatever you need, we’ll try and support you as much as we can’. So they were amazing at that but it was crazy man. It’s crazy to be… not in the middle of it, because you don’t experience anything, but it’s happening around you and it’s obviously around the corner. Obviously having a Pakistani background and being in India while this is happening. I genuinely believe these are the same people, obviously just split by borders, exactly the same people, good people on both sides. Amazing food is the same, everything’s the same,” said Moeen Ali.
A self-confessed conspiracy theorist, Moeen Ali then wandered into the tall weeds.
“I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist, I think it was more of a distraction or it was more like an America versus China in terms of weapons a little just to see what is happening a little bit. There’s a lot of theories about these things. I think it’s a distraction from what’s actually happening in Israel and Gaza,” Moeen Ali added.
