NEW DELHI: Two legends of world cricket, Imran Khan and Sunil Gavaskar on Friday held IPL responsible for the Indian team’s recent downfall, with the latter going on to say that for some Indian players national duty comes second to the cash-rich Twenty20 league.

Without naming anyone, Gavaskar questioned some Indian players’ complete focus on IPL.

“If you look at the events that took place immediately after the 2011 World Cup, you will know the guys who actually took their places for granted, those who did not make themselves available and preferred to play in the IPL and then go for surgeries,” Gavaskar said.

“I think those are the guys who instead of looking at India were looking at contributing for their IPL franchises. If at all you need to take a rest, you need to take a rest from club matches,” he said, when asked about India’s ODI series loss to Pakistan.

Gavaskar’s views were supported by Imran, who too felt that the IPL has a big role to play in Indian cricket team’s decline in the past one year.

“Unless Indian cricket deals with the IPL, unless you work out a balance between Test cricket and Twenty20 cricket and the commercial aspect of the IPL, Indian cricket will go down rapidly,”  he warned.

“The Indian players, apparently, are using up all their energies in competitions like the IPL while giving scant respect to proper international cricket which is a dangerous trend to say the least.”—Agencies