Stories of how the India-Pakistan conflict impacted the IPL, its participants and even their relatives keep trickling out even though the tensions have mostly receded at the moment. Moeen Ali is the latest person to come out with his tale from the turbulent period.

Moeen, the Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder, revealed that some of his family members were in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) when the hostilities started between India and Pakistan. Moeen’s wife and kids were with him in India.

The 37-year-old England citizen who has Pakistani roots is among the players who have not returned to India to participate in the remaining games of the IPL.

Speaking to Beard Before Wicket podcast, Moeen said “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.”

And what was his experience in India, where he was with the KKR squad? “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. 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,” Moeen said.

“You don’t know exactly what’s going on, so that’s the scary bit... The thing that we were worried about was flights getting cancelled,” he added.

But Moeen had decided to go back to England even before the IPL went into a forced break. “The night before they cancelled it… I’m one of those who don’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 you try to obviously protect your family and kids as much as you can.

“...Just make sure everything’s good. I was just out (of the IPL) before they even cancelled it, to be honest. I wasn’t well, so I was really sick at the same time. 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 (India).”