Australian cricket great Mike Hussey says the COVID-19 situation in India was "harrowing" and "hard to watch" as the country was engulfed by positive cases during the recent IPL.
Hussey, who was in the country as a batting coach for Chennai Super Kings, is back in Australia in hotel quarantine, after contracting COVID-19 during the tournament.
More than 30 Australian players, coaches and commentators were in India for the IPL, which was cancelled after a number of positive cases, despite the tournament taking place in a biosecure bubble.
At one point India was reporting more than 400,000 positive cases a day, although the suspicion is the true figure is much higher.
Hussey, who has now recovered, told Nine's Today show he was relieved to be home.
"We were quite protected, (but) we saw some of the pictures on TV and they were harrowing," he said.
"To see the number of cases and how quickly it surged and the lack of hospital beds for people who needed it was really hard to watch.
"We were in a pretty tight knit bubble, especially earlier in the tournament, but unfortunately COVID was able to breach our bubble and the tournament had to be postponed."
Hussey tested positive earlier this month, most likely catching the virus from another member of the coaching staff he sat next to on the team bus.
"I was pretty shocked," he said.
"I had a few symptoms, I felt like I had a bit of a head cold, and I had the fever for a few days, and the cough and really tired all the time.
"It certainly didn't feel life-threatening or anything like that for me, but it knocks you around a little bit more than I was expecting."
The 45-year-old said he was grateful to both the BCCI and Chennai for getting him home safely.
"There's lots of people over there that are desperately trying to get home, and I certainly have a lot of sympathy for those people.
"I've got friends that have taken over a year to get home, so it is really difficult and frustrating for a lot of people."
"It's not a nice situation over there at all."
Pressed on whether or not he was comfortable with the fact he'd returned home ahead of the estimated 9000 other Australians stuck in India, Hussey said the help of the BCCI was invaluable.
"I came home on a commercial flight, so I don't think I jumped the queue, as such," he said.
"It's a difficult one, we were just lucky, but I understand the frustrations of other people that are trying, and they've had to wait a long time to get back.
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