Difficult to stop players from going to the IPL, due to the amount of money involved: Aaqib Javed

Former Pakistan pacer Aaqib Javed believes that it is difficult to stop players from choosing the Indian Premier League (IPL) over national duty, due to the amount of money involved. Currently, Pakistan is on a tour of South Africa, where the top players of the home side have left the series in the middle to join their IPL franchises. The step once against brought up the “Nation or League” debate as the former cricketers weighed in their opinion.

“IPL is very strong as well as India [BCCI] which means that if other boards have to stop their players from going there then they have to pay them a lot of money which is a very difficult thing to do. Players earn around $1.5 million by playing in IPL for one and a half months which is almost double the amount they earn from playing with the national side. Also, South Africa cricket is already struggling due to internal administrative issues,” Javed told during an exclusive interview with Cricket Pakistan.

Pakistan has emerged as the better side thus far, claiming the three-match ODI series 2-1, and currently leading the four-match T20I series 1-0. In the absence of as many as five major players, namely Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, and Kagiso Rabada, who all left for the IPL, the home side is playing with a second-string squad. Although, Pakistan managed to win the first ODI even when all the mentioned players were available and participating.

Bumrah better bowler than Shaheen: Aaqib Javed

In his chat, Javed went onto compare Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah with Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi, while also urging the Pakistan team management to manage the latter’s workload carefully.“[Jasprit] Bumrah is a really good bowler who is good at everything. Right, now he is better than Shaheen [Afridi] in terms of death bowling. Although, with the new ball, Shaheen is ahead of him,” he said.

“It is injustice with Shaheen to make him play every match. Pakistan team should manage his workload carefully. They should not play him when the team has lost the series or adopt a proper rotation policy. Shaheen should only play those matches which are important,” he added.