Hopes to play full IPL for Delhi

James Hopes, the Australia allrounder, has said he will stay on with Delhi Daredevils till the end of the IPL and will not be going to Australia to be with his father, who has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. Hopes, who cost Delhi $350,000 in the auction, said he made the decision because his father had told him to continue playing.

"My father laughed and said, 'I will kill you if you come back. I want you to play and do well'," Hopes said. "I don't know where those reports of the possibility of my going back came from."

Hopes found out about his father's illness on Wednesday. He said the doctors are positive and his father will be undergoing surgery soon. "My father is in great spirits; my mother is there with him and my elder brother, John, is also there in Brisbane. There was never any question of my going back to Australia to be with him."

Hopes hasn't yet played for Delhi this season, with Aaron Finch, Roelof van der Merwe, David Warner and Morne Morkel being picked ahead of him in the foreign players' spots for the first two games. He came into the tournament in good Twenty20 form having scored two unbeaten half-centuries for Queensland in the recent Big Bash in Australia. That was part of a domestic season that also saw him win the Sheffield Shield Player of the Series award. He was a part of Kings XI Punjab during the IPL's first season, and scored 221 runs and took seven wickets in 11 matches.

Delhi are yet to win a match this season, but Hopes said there was a lot of time in which to improve. "These are early days and we have a good, solid team with a mix of young and experienced players. I hope to do well."