“Ravindra Jadeja Was Banned For…”: Ex-KKR Team Director Slams Hardik Pandya’s Mumbai Indians Trade

Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) crew director Joy Bhattacharjya was not happy with Indian cricket crew all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s sensational transfer from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians forward of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. In a latest interplay, Bhattacharja cited the instance of Ravindra Jadeja getting banned through the 2010 season for not signing a renewal with Rajasthan Royals and making an attempt to drive a transfer to Mumbai Indians. He went on to say {that a} transfer like this may be dangerous for the event and it’s harmful to encourage this pattern as it could actually set a dangerous precedent for the longer term.

“I do not think it is a great idea for the tournament because something similar almost happened in 2010. Ravindra Jadeja did not play a particular season because he wanted to move on and the franchise had signed him. He had said that he doesn’t want to play for Rajasthan Royals anymore and so was banned for a year because they said that you cannot break the system. If a player suddenly says that take me from the auction but I do not want to play for you…and once you start encouraging this trend then it will not be a good idea to go down that road. That is why it was stopped in 2010. But in 2023, you have allowed this to happen with a big player. The truth of this is once you start allowing it, players will realise that if they can kick up enough of a fuss, the franchise will leave them…I don’t think this is a good precedent for the league,” he stated on Oaktree Sports YouTube channel.

He additionally defined that Gujarat Titans probably didn’t have another alternative than to let Hardik go away for Mumbai Indians as that was the choice taken by the participant himself.

“Gujarat had two options. They could have allowed him to leave, make some money out of trade and get some money for the organisation which is enough to retain another big name player. The other option is with Hardik saying that he wants to leave, I would get one season of mediocre performance from him. Then he will leave and I will get nothing from it. Gujarat hence couldn’t have made any other choices given the circumstances.” he added.