IPL 2020: 5 superstars who prioritized their country over money-making IPL contracts

Traditionally, most cricketers have dreamt of representing their national team and it is always a matter of great pride. However, with the emergence of franchise cricket, there are players in the contemporary era who prefer going behind lucrative deals. In fact, quite a few players have quit international cricket to play franchise cricket while few of them made themselves unavailable for national events to participate in cash-league tournaments. However, there have been exceptions who have managed to not been drawn away by the temptation of earning big bucks by prioritizing their country over leagues such as the IPL for some reason or the other.

ALSO READ | Dale Steyn And AB De Villiers' Light-hearted Banter Wins The Internet Over

IPL: 5 players who prioritized their country over the tournament

5. Liam Livingstone

Livingstone chose to play in the County Championship rather than participating in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League 2020. With his latest records in white-ball cricket, Livingstone would have easily attracted a huge bid at the IPL 2020 auction. But, he chose the county season to get into England’s Test side. He had played a few games for the Rajasthan Royals in the 2019 season, replacing their current captain Steve Smith, but did not make much of an impact.

4. Mitchell Marsh

Marsh has always been a star performer in the shortest format. Still, he opted to play domestic tournaments to represent the Australian team across the formats. He could have fetched rich dividends and would have bagged quite a few million dollars in his account but he decided against playing in the IPL after 2013, which helped him paved his way into the national team.

ALSO READ | Shikhar Dhawan Grabs Eyeballs With A Bollywood Song As His Latest Instagram Post Caption

3. Glenn Maxwell

Maxwell created a lot of buzz in 2013 when Mumbai Indians signed him up for $1 million. He then made a move to Kings XI Punjab in the 2014 edition, and struck form immediately, scoring seven fifties in the tournament and had been their batting mainstay till 2017. However, he skipped the 2019 edition of the IPL to find his form ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. He played a full county season in England to acclimatise to the conditions. If he had chosen to play for IPL, he would have easily attracted a lot of bidders and perhaps, not starred for Australia in the World Cup.

2. Aaron Finch

Finch has amassed nearly 1900 runs in 58 matches with 2 stunning hundreds and 11 half-centuries. His strike-rate is exceptional, which is above 150 and that is quite remarkable in this format. In IPL, Finch has played 75 matches and scored over 1700 runs with 13 fifties. With such experience and numbers, he would have fetched an incredible price during the 2019 auction. However, he decided to give IPL 2019 a miss in order to be fresh for the World Cup as well. He recently revealed that he will be available for IPL 2020.

ALSO READ | Yuvraj Singh's Rib-tickling Wish To Manish Pandey On His Wedding Leaves Fans In Splits

1. Mitchell Starc

Starc is immensely popular in India. The Aussie quick has always fetched huge sums whenever his name has popped up in the auction. KKR picked him for a whopping $1.8 million but missed the 2018 season with a leg injury. In 2019, he withdrew himself from the auction to prepare for the World Cup. He has once again pulled out of the IPL auction, perhaps in a bid to prolong his career and make himself available for Australia across all three formats of the game on a much more regular basis.

ALSO READ | R Ashwin Sets Twitter Buzzing With His Mushfiqur Rahim-like 'premature' Celebration