MUMBAI: Cracking the whip, the Indian Premier League today slapped a four-match ban on young Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey, who has been signed up by Sahara Pune Warriors for the fourth season of the T20 league, for breaching its guidelines.
IPL’s Governing Council also stalled what could have been a back-door entry for former India captain Sourav Ganguly after he was left unsold at the January 8-9 Players’ Auction in Bangalore at a base price of USD 400,000.
Speaking to reporters after a marathon meeting of the T20 League’s Governing Council, chairman Chirayu Amin said that Pandey, through his agent, had haggled with several franchises.
"Pandey’s agent was negotiating with a number of franchises," was how Amin put it.
He also said that Ganguly would not be part of IPL-4 following the objection raised by a few franchises to a request from one franchise which was interested in buying the Bengal stalwart outside the auction.
IPL rules state that no capped player can be bought outside the players’ auction after he has been part of the process.
"We had received a request from one franchise (Kochi) that Ganguly should be allowed to be purchased outside the auction and rejected it after objections were raised by some other franchises," Amin said.
About the outcome of the meeting and the decisions taken, Amin said it was a long one (lasting four and a half hours) as there were several items on the agenda.
"It was a long meeting as the agenda was big. We discussed about so many practicalities of (conducting) IPL4, entertainment, logistics and other things," he said.
Sources in the Pune franchise said Pandey had given a signed affidavit to the IPL that he would play for them this season.
Five new IPL Committees were also appointed in the meeting.
Code of Behaviour Committee: Shashank Manohar, Arun Jaitley, Chirayu Amin, Ravi Shastri, Ajay Shirke
Technical Committee: Chirayu Amin, Mohinder Amarnath, Ravi Shastri, M P Pandove, Sanjay Jagdale, Ranjib Biswal
Entertainment Committee: Chirayu Amin, Rajeev Shukla, Anurag Thakur, Ranjib Biswal
Therapeutic Usage Exemption (TUE) Committee: Independent physicians arranged through IDTM
Suspect Bowling Action Committee: S Venkatraghavan, A V Jayaprakash, Javagal Srinath, Mohinder Amarnath
Prior to the meeting of the GC, four Indian players, led by senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar, met BCCI president Shashank Manohar apparently to discuss the ambush-marketing clause sent to them by the International Cricket Council.
The other three players who met the Board chief were Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra.
The ICC has toughened its stand on players indulging knowingly or unknowingly in ambush marketing, by threatening to throw them out of the World Cup starting in Dhaka on February 19.
"Any squad member that knowingly or unknowingly breaches the squad terms may face sanctions ranging from financial penalties through to being excluded from continued participation in the event," ICC’s legal head David Becker said in a memo to all international players and cricket boards regarding guidelines for endorsements and commercials around the World Cup.(PTI)
