Rory McIlroy has declared a surprise bucket list item ahead of his trip to Australia this December, calling himself a “bit of a sicko” for Test cricket.
The career grand slam winner is in India, playing in the DP World India Championship at Delhi Golf Club, starting Thursday afternoon AEDT, for the first time in his career.
McIlroy is joined in the field by European Ryder Cup teammates Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Shane Lowry as well as European captain Luke Donald, while he is in the same group as Hovland and the USA’s Ben Griffin.
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The Northern Irishman expressed his disappointment that the tournament did not align with any international cricket or Indian Premier League matches however, saying it will have to wait for next time.
“I’d love to go and see a cricket game. I’d love to go watch a cricket match. I don’t think there’s anything on until next month maybe. I’d love to come back and do that,” McIlroy said.
“I mean, I’m a bit of a sicko. I love sitting down and watching Test matches.
“I’m going to be in Australia later this year, and The Ashes is going to be on. So that’s something I’m quite excited — I don’t think I’ll be able to get to a game but I’d love to do that.”
Unfortunately for McIlroy, the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne clashes with the second Ashes Test in Brisbane with both events starting on Thursday 4 December.
The Gabba Test is a day/night Test this year, however, meaning McIlroy will be able to put his feet up and catch plenty of the action from his hotel room after a round.
More time in hotels appears to be on the cards for the 36-year-old in the coming years.
He once again reaffirmed to reporters on Wednesday that he wants to play in more tournaments around the globe.
“I would say as time goes on, my schedule will get hopefully more international. Because that’s what I’ve enjoyed doing. I’ve always said that,” McIlroy said.
“But I think over the last few years, I’ve enjoyed it even more. I’ve enjoyed the travel. I’ve enjoyed getting to play in front of people that I’ve never played in front of before. But it does, it fits really nicely.
“You know, because there is — I’ll always go back and play The Irish Open and Wentworth in September, and then you sort of have especially in non-Ryder Cup years, you’ve got some choices to make where you want to play, how much do you want to play, do you want to take some time off.
“But this event certainly fits into a nice part of the year.”
NEW DELHI, INDIA – OCTOBER 15: Rory McIlroy tees off from hole 1 during PRO-AM prior to the DP World India Championship 2025 at Delhi Golf Club on October 15, 2025 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Prakash Singh/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
The host venue this week is certainly set to provide some unique challenges for the superstars that have descended on the Peter Thomson – the legendary Australian who won the British Open five times – designed course.
Accuracy off the tee is the name of the game in Delhi with the course’s incredibly tight fairways encouraging players to leave driver out of the bag.
“I’d say that the next time I hit my driver will be in Abu Dhabi (in next month’s DP World Tour playoffs),” McIlroy said with a laugh.
“I don’t think I’ll hit a driver this week. I just don’t feel like the risk is worth the reward. I’d rather leave myself two or three clubs back and hit a 7-iron into a par 4 instead of hitting a wedge where if you just get it off-line here and the ball is gone.
“You’re hitting it into jungle and you’re not going to be able to get it out. You can rack up a very big number very quickly.”
McIlroy can expect a far warmer welcome from the crowd this week than he received at Bethpage Black in New York during last month’s Ryder Cup.
The Masters champion was relentlessly abused with American fans repeatedly crossing the line with vulgar, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic taunts directed at McIlroy, and his wife Erica as she walked the course, watching her husband.
McIlroy said that as time goes on, he wants to shift the focus away from the poor crowd behaviour and onto the Europeans’ superb victory.
“The unfortunate thing is people aren’t remembering that (performance) and they are remembering the week for the wrong reason,” he said.
“I would like to shift the narrative and focus on how good the European team were and how proud I was to be part of that team to win an away Ryder Cup.”
The topic of Ryder Cup captaincy also came up in McIlroy’s press conference as Luke Donald told reporters on Tuesday that his top player “would make a good captain”.
McIlroy said in response: “I would love to be the European team captain at some point.
“But that will be beyond my playing days, or at least when my playing days are coming to an end and I’m not good enough to make the team or I make way for the new generation to come along.
“Hopefully that’s not in 2027.”
McIlroy praised Donald’s leadership in the two editions of the Ryder Cup that he has captained Europe in. They beat the Americans both times.
“I think what Luke Donald has done the last two Ryder Cups has revolutionised the captaincy within Europe,” said McIlroy.
“He has 100 per cent respect of the entire team and everyone that’s worked for him.
“If I can be nearly as good as a captain as Luke Donald, I’ll have done a good job.”
