South African fast bowler Dale Steyn on Tuesday apologised to the Bangladesh fans who were offended by his comments about Bangladesh team in an interview published in Wisden India. In the interview published on Monday, Steyn insisted that he will not feature his team’s tour in Bangladesh in July to give himself more energy to prepare for the World Cup. Steyn said he would not like to ‘waste few balls’ he has left in his career for Bangladesh tour and likes to preserve them for the bigger occasions.
The article created tremendous amount of wrath to the Bangladeshi fans, whose side have shown consistent success over the last few months by reaching World Cup quarter-finals and clean sweeping Pakistan in a one-day international series.
The fury was expressed with thousands of comments from the Tigers’ followers throughout social media websites and even his comments were being replied by many angry supporters.
‘My Twitter feed has been pretty comical today,’ Steyn said in the micro-blogging site. ‘I see some people have misunderstood what I said in a recent interview… Sorry if u feel offended, now go re read and try understand. Peace’.
He said in his interview that he would like to go to Bangladesh not to take on the field but help the new generation bowlers and share his knowledge and experiences as a mentor.
‘At this stage of my career, I’d rather be saving myself to go and participate in the major tournaments, rather than wasting the few balls I have left in my career in a Bangladesh match , ‘he said.
‘I’d rather go to Bangladesh to help and support future South African bowlers, and use what is left of the 10,000 or 20,000 deliveries that I have left in my body for the big tournament,’ Steyn added.
South Africa are scheduled to tour Bangladesh in July-August to play two Tests, three one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international.
-With New Age input
