Ravindra Jadeja's IPL ban upheld

The Indian Premier League on Saturday upheld Ravindra Jadeja's ban for the third season of the Twenty20 tournament after the conclusion of a special hearing chaired by governing council member Arun Jaitley in Mumbai.

"IPL Governing Council Member Arun Jaitley has recommended that the one year ban imposed on Ravindra Jadeja from playing in the IPL be maintained. This recommendation was based on the fact that the player contrived a situation to his advantage by breaching the Player Trading Rules and not signing his third year contract for IPL 2010 with the Rajasthan Royals," the IPL said in a media release.

"In his report to the IPL Governing Council, Jaitley has stated that Ravindra Jadeja wanted to utilize this breach to his own advantage and seek a better bargain from other franchises in terms of a higher compensation for himself. A fact also admitted to by Jadeja during the course of the hearing," it added.

The IPL pointed out that Jadeja committed a breach on two counts; firstly, by not signing the contract with the Rajasthan Royals for 2010, wherein he wanted to declare himself free from contractual obligations and failed to discharge his obligations under the Player Trading Rules.

Secondly, Jadeja's act of meeting representatives of the Mumbai Indian franchise and sending his contract documents to them for inspection and his own admission that he received documents from Mumbai and used them for representation purposes to the Governing Council, reveal that he was indeed guilty of breaching the Operational Rules by approaching another Franchise.

Jaitley further added that cricketer - Ravindra Jadeja had acted on the premise that since he had failed to sign a contract, he was no longer a contracted player with Rajasthan Royals. However, as per the Player Guidelines a player who is under a legal obligation to sign the contract for the third year, has to be regarded as a contracted player for the purpose of those rules. A player under a legal obligation to be a contracted player does not cease to be a contracted player if he breaches his obligations.

DDCA president Jaitley also recommended the sanction of a warning to the Mumbai Indians.

Sighting the fact that the response by the Mumbai Indians to the approach by Jadeja, amounted to a franchise, having approached a player who was under an obligation to play for another franchise.

Under these circumstances Jaitley has given a declaration under the disciplinary Rules - of the Regulations and Disciplinary Procedures that the Mumbai Indians also 'approached' Ravinder Jadeja, as they were in active communication with him regarding his obtaining a no objection from the IPL, which would have permitted him to play for the Mumbai franchise, particularly when the Rajasthan Royals were desperately trying to get Ravinder Jadeja to play for them.

He also made it clear, that were any franchise to make such an 'approach' or an active, 'response to an approach', a more deterrent line of action should be considered.

Meanwhile, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi also seconded Jaitley's views and said that henceforth the Governing Council will take these issues very seriously. He said that there will be a zero tolerance policy, as the player guidelines laid out by of the IPL are sacrosanct and everyone must strictly adhere to the same.