South African pacer Dale Steyn was one of the most feared bowlers during his prime and was known for rattling the opposition batsmen with his raw pace and swing. In his 15-year-long glorious international career (2004-2019), he represented the Proteas in 93 Test matches scalping a whopping 439 wickets.
The 37-year-old has also been a regular feature in the Indian Premier League, having played for teams like Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), now-defunct Deccan Chargers, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), and Gujarat Lions since the inception of the tournament back in 2008.
Though the growing age might’ve got the better of Steyn, he still features in other franchise based leagues across the globe. He hasn’t been as effective as he was during his early days. This is one of the reasons Steyn played just three games last season for the RCB.
Thus, ahead of the IPL 2021 auction last season, he decided to opt-out of the cash-rich league and instead decided on featuring in other T20 leagues across the globe. Fans, however, were not happy with Steyn opting to play for PSL instead of the IPL.
On Friday, Steyn decided to organize a Q&A session on Twitter where again some Indian fans asked for clarification for skipping IPL. To this, another Twitter user replied that the main reason behind Dale sidelining IPL is that the chances of him getting picked during the auctions were slim.
But, instead of getting offended, Dale Steyn took the comment sportingly and said that the chances of him making it to the Playing XI are almost negligible.
“Bottom line is Steyn is at the end of his career. He was unlikely to be selected anyway. Hence his comments,” a user wrote.
Steyn replied: “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.”