Tough for pacers to choose between country and IPL: McGrath

- 'Do you want to be sort of playing for your country for as long as possible or the lure of playing IPL cricket and the money up for offer there?'

Australia's pace great Glenn McGrath says it's getting increasingly difficult for present day fast bowlers to choose between representing the country or be lured by the quick buck of the Indian Premier League.

McGrath is a strong advocate of fast bowlers playing across formats.

"I think that's as much up to the individual as it is to the association. You got to weigh up what do you want," he said.

"Do you want to be sort of playing for your country for as long as possible or the lure of playing IPL cricket and the money up for offer there? It is a tough decision and I'd wonder what I would choose. But, (at the) end of the day, if you are injured, you are not playing for your country, you are not playing IPL, you are not playing any cricket," McGrath was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

McGrath is critical of the work ethic of young fast bowlers and said they think they have 'made it' big after featuring in tournaments like the IPL.

"Young fast bowlers, the harder they work the better they are going to be. That's where I think young bowlers probably let themselves down - they get to a certain level or play IPL, they think they have made it," McGrath said.

The 46-year-old was regarded as one of the best fast bowlers to have played the game, bagging 563 wickets in 124 Tests during a 14-year-long career. McGrath also has 381 scalps from 250 ODIs with a best match figure of 7/15.

"They (today's bowlers) don't work as hard, they don't train as hard, they don't recover as well and that has a big effect. It's hard work to get to a certain level and it is harder work to stay there and that's the mindset young bowlers need to have," the 6 feet 5 inch-tall pacer from New South Wales said.

Image: Glenn McGrath

Photograph: Tom Shaw/Getty Images