Former KKR director not convinced with Hardik Pandya’s trade to Mumbai Indians

Former Kolkata Knight Riders director Joy Bhattacharjya is not very pleased with Hardik Pandya’s all-cash trade to Mumbai Indians (MI). He said that this trade has established an undesirable precedent for the IPL. As per Bhattacharjya, the IPL has created an environment where players like Hardik Pandya can influence their departure from a team, as witnessed with the Gujarat Titans (GT) and this will encourage several other players to reject playing for a team even when they sign a contract. Bhattacharjya cited the case of Ravindra Jadeja from IPL 2010. Jadeja, who was with Rajasthan Royals (RR) in 2008 and 2009, reportedly sought a higher remuneration. However, when his request was turned down, he engaged with Mumbai Indians for a more favourable deal while still under contract with RR. “He (Jadeja) 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," Bhattacharjya said on Oaktree Sports’ YouTube show. “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,” he further added. Read |  Hardik Pandya says feeling of returning to Mumbai Indians ’not sunk in yet’ Despite the official negotiation of Hardik’s deal between the two franchises, several reports suggest that the all-rounder was already in touch with the Mumbai Indians even before formal discussions started. Despite this, the IPL allowed the deal to proceed and it has raised concerns about the league’s handling of such situations. Bhattacharjya went on to explain the predicament faced by Gujarat Titans in allowing Hardik to depart . The all-rounder had one year remaining in his contract and considering his strong inclination towards Mumbai, Gujarat had to be satisfied with a disgruntled player for one season. “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,” he explained.