In a financial sense, no Australian player would lose more from an IPL cancellation than Cummins after he was auctioned off for an international record of 155 million Indian rupees ($A3.35m) last year.

IPL organisers, having already pushed the start of the season back to April 15 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, are discussing extreme isolation measures, potential dates and even alternative host nations for the Twenty20 extravaganza.

Cummins is being kept in the loop by Kolkata Knight Riders and trying to stay physically fit and mentally sharp.

"Everyone is still really keen for it to go ahead, but the priority is to minimise risk of it spreading," Cummins told reporters on a video call.

"It's a holding pattern ... the last I spoke to them, they were still really confident and hopeful it'll be on at some stage."

But, having bolted alongside British fiancee Becky to a property south of Sydney as the health crisis took hold, the express paceman realises the call is unlikely to come soon as coronavirus infection rates and death counts climb around the world.

"This year's going to look very different to what we've seen before ... there are so many scenarios," he said.

"Unless things improve, I can't really see many tournaments going on anywhere in the world for a little while.

"It's awful seeing things like - Italy and Spain, but now America and the UK in recent days - it's just crazy how quickly it's developed.

"Obviously got a lot of family over in England at the moment and speaking to them regularly."

Australia were slated to tour Bangladesh in June then England in July, but both trips are in immense doubt.

England's cricket board, like the AFL and NRL, is fearing that 2020 could be a write-off.

"Speaking to a few close mates who play county cricket over there, they've gone through the whole pre-season and geared up for the start of their summer," Cummins said.

"They're now staring down the barrel of potentially their whole summer of cricket being over ... the health risk is a big one, but those guys basically have to put their careers on hold."

Cricket Australia is preparing financial continency plans for the prospect of its 2019-20 season being affected and Cummins suggested players were ready to "take some of that pain".

The 26-year-old joked David Warner was turning his entire house into a gym, while national coach Justin Langer had been setting the bar high in off-season training.

"JL sends through the odd video message just gloating about the 16km run he's done that day," he said.

Australian Associated Press