South African pacer Dale Steyn has said he finds the Pakistan Super League “more rewarding” than the Indian Premier League. Speaking to Cricket Pakistan, the fast bowler said that “cricket gets forgotten” at times in the IPL.
In January this year, Steyn had made himself unavailable for IPL 2021 but ruled out an imminent retirement from competitive cricket. The 37-year-old had played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last edition of the IPL, where he got to play three matches and bagged one wicket.
Currently playing for the Safaraz Ahmed-led Quetta Gladiators, Steyn spoke about why he decided to skip this year’s IPL.
“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 on the 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 about 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.
Steyn, who retired from Test cricket in 2019 as South Africa’s highest wicket-taker in the format, finished with 439 wickets in 93 Tests at an outstanding average of 22.95 and a strike rate of 42.30. In ODIs, he has so far collected 195 wickets from 125 games at an average of 25.9 and a strike rate of 31.9.