Yuvraj Singh slams IPL; demands more respect for senior players

2011 Cricket World Cup winner, Yuvraj Singh took a dig at the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), citing it as a major reason for youth cricketers getting distracted from the sport. Speaking during a Sportstar podcast, Singh stated that big money and lucrative deals of IPL were making the upcoming generation choose T20s over four-day cricket.

The former all-rounder sounded critical of the irresistible charm of money IPL presented for the upcoming cricketers. According to him, not the present but the next pool of Indian cricketers were being groomed to play shorter formats of the game, instead of preparing for the grinding nature of four-day matches for their states.

“IPL offers big money and it takes away the focus (from the youngsters). Not the current lot. They want to play Tests but the younger lot, who play one-day cricket mostly, their focus is to play IPL and not four-day cricket for the states.”

Singh also slammed the younger players in the Indian setup, demanding more respect for the senior pros in the squad. He explained how the respect for the seniors, who acted as mentors, had gone down in comparison to earlier days.

“From the interaction with the youngsters, you realize that they can do with more respect for the seniors. It is not the same that we gave to our seniors. There has to be a certain amount of respect towards the seniors, who have taught you so much.”

Singh, who scored 11,778 runs with 17 centuries in 402 international matches, retired from international cricket last year. He won the IPL twice in 2016 and 2019, with Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians respectively. In 132 IPL matches, Yuvraj scored 2750 runs and also took 36 wickets, including two hat-tricks.