Steyn reveals the reason to skip the Indian Premier League

It’s said that "change is the only constant in life" and nothing on the planet can move in the same plane. Another law states that "anything that goes up always comes down". The rules apply in every domain, including cricket. Sportspersons can never remain at the peak of their career. Eventually, the graph of their career has to come down. A similar thing happened with South African veteran, Dale Steyn, who’s no more the fearsome pacer he used to be. Steyn doesn’t play for South Africa anymore so he’s shifted his attention to the T20 leagues around the globe.

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The 37 year old had a remarkable stint in the IPL, playing for teams like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Deccan Chargers, Sunrisers Hyderbad and Gujrat Lions since the inception of the tournament in 2008. In the 2020 edition of the tournament, the pacer represented Virat Kohli’s RCB but featured in only three games.

Indian Premier League is one of the most prestigious tournaments across the globe and playing in the money rich league has been the priority of every cricketer. However, Steyn, who played in the PSL, decided to skip India’s T20 extravaganza.

In a Q&A session, Steyn was asked the reason to prefer PSL over IPL. To this, one fan commented that Steyn pulled out of the IPL auction because the chances of him getting picked were negligible. Steyn took the comment sportingly and agreed with the fan. He said that even if he was picked in the auction, he might not have made it into the playing XI.

“100% truth. And if I was selected might not even play, hence playing smaller leagues and guaranteed a spot in the starting 11 seems a more obvious choice for me at the point of my career, doesn’t mean IPL isn’t still the biggest and most obvious goal for all other cricketers,” Dale Steyn replied.