IPL: Manish Pandey banned for 4 games

New Delhi: Cracking the whip, the Indian Premier League on Friday 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.

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.

Pandey will play for the Pune Warriors in the IPL-4 season.

Pandey, who will play for the Pune Warriors in this season of the mega event, rejected an offer from RCB to sign him afresh as his former employer was offering him fees as per the IPL rule which says domestic cricketers who have played for more than two seasons but less than five should not be paid more than Rs. 20 lakh.

Pandey was the first Indian to have hit a century in the IPL and has been a part of the RCB team for two seasons. The reason for his RCB snub was said to be the salary of the cricketer as he gets only a fraction of the money earned by his counterparts due to the fact that he is still an uncapped player.

IPL rules clearly demarcate between the salaries of cricketers who have played for India and others who haven’t. As a result, players like Umesh Yadav and Saurabh Tiwary, who have played only a few games for India, have fetched up crores while ones like Pandey get peanuts in comparison despite their superb performance in the IPL.

To make the matter more complex, the 'uncapped-player’ rule applies only to the Indian players while foreign uncapped cricketers like Mitchell Marsh have raked-in crores.

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