Dean Elgar opens up about players choosing IPL over Bangladesh series

South Africa’s red-ball skipper Dean Elgar termed it the ‘loyalty test’ for his mates when they were supposed to pick one between the home series against Bangladesh and the Indian Premier League (IPL 2022). Surprisingly, many big names like Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje and others opt for the cash-rich league, however, Elgar is satisfied with the response he got from his mates upon querying their priority over the national duties.

Notably, the IPL 2022 kick-started on 26th March, and the Proteas players who have left for the league featured in the three-match ODI series before flying to India. Unluckily, the home siders lost the ODI series by 2-1. SA vs Ban Test series however collides with the IPL 2022 schedule. It includes two test matches to be played from 31st March – to 4th April and 8th-12th April respectively.

It must be noted Cricket South Africa (CSA) and IPL are in a contract according to which CSA will not schedule any international series during IPL tenure. It says that the board will have to release all players, freeing them to choose either the national commitments or the IPL. Similar happened after the Bangladesh Test series collided with the initial IPL, and some SA players had to prioritize IPL over the Bangladesh series.

Elgar says the players were put in the scenario where they had to choose IPL over national duties and he is all okay with that.

“I’m pretty comfortable with where I sit with the players that aren’t here. I’ve had some really detailed chats with them, to find out mentally where they are from the perspective of playing a Test series to playing in the IPL. I’m very comfortable with the answers they gave me,” said Elgar at a virtual press conference organized by Cricket South Africa ahead of the Test series.

“I do know the players were put in a situation with regard to making a decision on their availability. I’m pretty sure a lot of them were put in a situation and had to deal with circumstances in which they wouldn’t have made a rash decision if it didn’t mean a helluva lot to them,” Elgar added.

Due to the mentioned above reasons, CSA named a second-string red-ball squad composed of multiple new names for the Bangladesh series which is listed below.

Dean Elgar (C), Temba Bavuma, Daryn Dupavillon, Sarel Erwee, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Wiaan Mulder, Duanne Olivier, Keegan Petersen, Ryan Rickelton, Lutho Sipamla, Glenton Stuurman, Kyle Verreynne, Lizaad Williams, Khaya Zondo.

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