South Africa veteran pacer Dale Steyn has turned his back on the world’s most lucrative T20 league – the Indian Premier League (IPL) – because he believes the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and the Sri Lankan Premier League (LPL) are “slightly more rewarding” for a cricketer.
He is currently plying his trade for Quetta Gladiators in the ongoing PSL.
While talking to Cricket Pakistan in an exclusive interview, Steyn said that cricket gets forgotten amid money talks in the IPL. That’s why he decided to pull out of the tournament and leave his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ahead of the auction.
“I wanted some time off. I found that playing in these other leagues was slightly more rewarding as a player. I think when you go to IPL, there are such big squads and so many big names and so much emphasis on maybe the amount of money players earn and everything like that, so sometimes, somewhere down the line, cricket gets forgotten,” said Steyn.
“When you come to like a PSL or the Sri Lankan Premier League, for that matter, there is an importance of cricket. I have only been here for a couple of days, and I have had people in and out of my room, just wanting to know where I have played and how I went about it.
“Whereas, when I go to something like the IPL that gets forgotten and the main topic is how much money did you go for in this IPL? That’s just me being brutally honest. I wanted to stay away from that and really put more emphasis on playing and bringing good vibes to good cricket teams and tournaments I feel are worth it,” he added.
Here’s the video:
When you go to IPL,there are such big squads,so many big names and so much emphasis on maybe the amount of money players earn and everything like that,so sometimes,cricket gets forgotten.When you come to like a PSL or LPL there is an importance on the cricket.Dale Steyn pic.twitter.com/xadKxcKnyv
— Saleem Khaliq (@saleemkhaliq) March 2, 2021
In IPL 2020, Steyn managed to pick just one wicket in three games, at a poor average of 133 and a strike-rate of above 11.
