Pant wanted to test his worth in auction market: New DC coach

Delhi Capitals' (DC) new head coach, Hemang Badani, was straightforward in saying that Rishabh Pant, part of the franchise since the start of his IPL career in 2016, wanted to try his worth in the auction market and did not want to be retained. 

This was contrary to what co-owner Parth Jindal had said about Pant. He had written a long ‘Thank You’ note and told one of the cricket websites that Pant's decision to leave Delhi was not because of money. 

“It was just a different philosophy of how he wanted the franchise to operate and how we - the owners - wanted the franchise to operate. That's what caused it [Pant's departure]. There's nothing to do with money. 

"Money's never been an issue for Rishabh. And money's never been an issue for us. I guess the three of us [Kiran Grandhi, Jindal and Pant] were on different wavelengths,” Jindal was quoted as saying to ESPN Cricinfo. 

Badani, though, stated it clearly on former India and Tamil Nadu batter Subramanian Badrinath’s YouTube channel, Cric It with Badri. 

“He wanted not to be retained. He said he wanted to go to the auction and test the market. If you want to retain a player, both parties have to agree on certain things. We tried talking to him, the management tried talking to him. There were a lot of phone calls and messages exchanged,” said the former India batter Badani. 

“Yes, Delhi Capitals were interested in retaining him. He said he wanted to go to the auction and test the market. He said he had a feeling that there were chances he would get more money than the highest cap for retained players, which is Rs 18 crore,” added the 48-year-old, who was part of the Hindi and English commentary teams for the Adelaide Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy recently. 

Answering why Delhi did not go full stretch to get Pant, Badani said, “At the end of the day, he felt he was worth more. And the market said the same thing. He got INR 27 Cr. Good for him. We will miss him. But life goes on.”

Pant was locked in for INR 21 Cr by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). That’s when Delhi decided to use their Right to Match (RTM), and LSG increased the wicketkeeper-batter’s price to INR 27 Cr, the highest ever in IPL history. Capitals decided not to match it. 

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