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Cape Town - Albie Morkel says the Indian Premier League alone should not be blamed for injuries to key Proteas bowlers, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
GALLERY: Proteas v Pakistan
Albie's brother Morne was last week sent home from South Africa's Champions trophy campaign in the UK after picking up a leg injury.
Steyn is still with the team but is yet to play in the event due to an ongoing side strain.
But Albie, who has fallen out of favour with the Proteas selectors in recent seasons, believes a heavy workload on the players is to blame for the injuries.
"Fingers could also be pointed at the IPL I guess, because they (Morne Morkel and Steyn) were key players for their respective teams and played a lot," Albie told the Beeld website.
"But the big problem in the IPL is rather the burden of travelling from one place to another and a lack of sleep.
"To travel from Chennai to Delhi can easily take whole day," said Albie, who represents the Chennai Super Kings. "You also have to play in 75% of the games to get your full salary. It could then happen that players play with slight injuries."
But Morkel is adamant that the big problem is the fact that too much cricket is played across all formats.
Meanwhile, South Africa performed well with the ball in Steyn and Morkel's absence on Monday, with Ryan McLaren (4/19), Lonwabo Tsotsobe (2/23) and debutant Chris Morris (2/25) bowling well in their 67-run win over Pakistan in Birmingham.
GALLERY: Proteas v Pakistan
Albie's brother Morne was last week sent home from South Africa's Champions trophy campaign in the UK after picking up a leg injury.
Steyn is still with the team but is yet to play in the event due to an ongoing side strain.
But Albie, who has fallen out of favour with the Proteas selectors in recent seasons, believes a heavy workload on the players is to blame for the injuries.
"Fingers could also be pointed at the IPL I guess, because they (Morne Morkel and Steyn) were key players for their respective teams and played a lot," Albie told the Beeld website.
"But the big problem in the IPL is rather the burden of travelling from one place to another and a lack of sleep.
"To travel from Chennai to Delhi can easily take whole day," said Albie, who represents the Chennai Super Kings. "You also have to play in 75% of the games to get your full salary. It could then happen that players play with slight injuries."
But Morkel is adamant that the big problem is the fact that too much cricket is played across all formats.
Meanwhile, South Africa performed well with the ball in Steyn and Morkel's absence on Monday, with Ryan McLaren (4/19), Lonwabo Tsotsobe (2/23) and debutant Chris Morris (2/25) bowling well in their 67-run win over Pakistan in Birmingham.
