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Follow UsSo, Hardik Pandya is now officially traded to Mumbai Indians. The paperwork is done and dusted with, as Gujarat Titans have decided to let go of their inspirational skipper, who led them to the title in 2022 and to the final in 2023. Try to make a cricketing sense of it, and you’d perhaps fail to attune yourself.
It is a fact that Mumbai Indians made Hardik Pandya. It is where Hardik saw a stratospheric rise in his stock almost a decade ago and became Indian cricket’s blue-eyed superstar. The value he brought to the table was uncanny, but more importantly, the sense of purpose that he provided to the side was the primary reason why the Ambani-owned franchise never wanted to let the Baroda superstar go before 2022.
It is understandable why they wanted him back at any cost.
But that is also a classic dichotomy of the Indian Premier League. If you compare the owners and the purpose of investment they make into the league, there is a clear demarcation of intent. Not that the likes of RP-Sanjeev Goenka Group, which owns Lucknow Super Giants, or Diageo India, which operates Royal Challengers Bangalore, can’t make substantial investments to grow their profile, but returns have always alluded them.
Unlike Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Conglomerate - the biggest company in India in terms of market capitalization - they, however, wouldn’t be able to go all in.
That’s where the question about fairness and larger transparency comes into play. In Hardik’s case, it was prompted by an undisclosed transfer fee, which meant apart from the basic salary of INR 15 crore, the Indian all-rounder is liable to secure up to 50% of the transfer fee. Whether letting go of Hardik Pandya makes cricketing sense or not, CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm that owns Gujarat Titans, will have a pretty good sum upfront. For a venture firm, overlooking the financial aspects seems troublesome.
In light of the current scenario, one can’t help but go back to another incident that CVC was involved in. Before Formula 1 was taken over by Liberty Media in 2017, CVC owned the league for 11 years. But as it would have it, Bob Fernley, then deputy team principal of F1 team 'Force India', later accused CVC of “r***** the sport” and was only concerned about their own ROI than growing the sport. In 2016, drivers openly criticized CVC and how the insane chase of profits resulted in a frailing standard of the sport.
This is not to say that the private equity firm shouldn’t look for their own return on Investment from the IPL. The T20 league is designed for pure business; any capitalistic owner should have nothing else in mind. But it is also about cricket. A format that provides joy to the millions and a tournament that has risen to become the best cricket league in the world can’t have a translucent system in place where deals are signed behind the scenes.
When IPL first came into existence, the idea of an auction was to ensure Financial Fair Play - a system European football integrated quite late. It was not how much you had in your bank that mattered but how much are you allowed to carry into the auction room that was the eventual differentiator. But there has been a precedent where it was broken in public eyes.
When Kieron Pollard's auction came to a tie, with Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders at USD 750,000, then IPL Chairman Lalit Modi invited secret bids from all four franchises to pick the winner. It was Mumbai who secured the bid and walked away with one of the most celebrated T20 players of all-time.
Hence, circling back to the argument, if the "Transfer Fees" system is to be allowed to be reined in, it defeats the basic purpose of the auction in the first place. If owners are allowed to engage in “legal” horse trading, fairness and transparency shouldn’t at least be the buzzword.
Hence, it might be completely legal and within the stipulated rules of the IPL, but the stakeholders have a very important question to answer. The trust of the fans shouldn’t be taken for granted just because some franchises can afford to splurge cash.
