IPL 2024: ”Not A Good Precedent For The League”, Ex KKR Team Director Joy Bhattacharjya Unhappy On Hardik Pandya Trade

New Delhi: Ex Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Team Director, Joy Bhattacharjya was not at all a happy man with how things transpired on the Hardik Pandya Trade saga on deadline day. Pandya was traded to Mumbai Indians after initially getting retained by Gujarat Titans ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Joy cited Ravindra Jadeja’s incident from 2010 and he feels if it is allowed like this then it would be a bad example for the league.

“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 said on Oaktree Sports YouTube channel.

“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 further added.