South Africa pacer Dale Steyn, who plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), had informed that he will not be featuring in the 14th edition of the league.
Steyn cleared the air on his retirement and said he is taking some time off from cricket and is not calling it quits.
"Just a short message to let everyone know that I've made myself unavailable for RCB at this years IPL, I'm also not planning on playing for another team, just taking some time off during that period. Thank you to RCB for understanding. No, I'm not retired," Steyn had tweeted.
Cricket tweet
Just a short message to let everyone know that I’ve made myself unavailable for RCB at this years IPL, I’m also not planning on playing for another team, just taking some time off during that period.
Thank you to RCB for understanding.
No I’m not retired.
— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) January 2, 2021
However, Steyn has now explained his decision to opt-out of this year's IPL and said playing in other T20 leagues was "more rewarding as a player."
Steyn, who is in Karachi as part of Quetta Gladiators squad for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) said the big squads and "so many big names" at the IPL take the attention away from the cricket.
"I have found that playing in other leagues was slightly more rewarding as a player," Steyn told YouTube channel Cricket Pakistan.
"When you go to IPL, there's such big squads and there's so many big names and there's so much emphasis on the amount of money that the players earn that sometimes, somewhere along the line the cricket gets forgotten," he added.
Steyn was released by the RCB team ahead of the February player auction. "When you come to (a tournament) like PSL or Sri Lankan Premier League, there really 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," Steyn said.
"Whereas sometimes when you go to the IPL, that kind of gets forgotten. The main topic is how much money did you go for this IPL. And that's just me being brutally honest.
"I wanted to probably stay away from that this year and put more emphasis on playing and bringing good vibes to good cricket teams," Steyn added.