Ravindra Jadeja missed the 2010 IPL season after being caught out of contract with the deadline for the final squad lists passing. Jadeja played for the Rajasthan Royals in the first two seasons of the IPL but did not find a place with any franchise for the second season.
Lalit Modi, the then IPL commissioner, confirmed that the all-rounder had been penalised for allegedly trying to negotiate terms with another franchise. “The IPL governing council has arrived at this decision after due deliberations done after taking into account Ravindra Jadeja’s representation to the president of the BCCI and a further representation by the Rajasthan Royals,” he said in a statement. Little did one know back then that Modi will once be out of Indian cricket and that Jadeja would go on to become an integral part of the national side.
The IPL’s governing council later agreed to enter an appeal from Jadeja and the two franchises involved, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. The ban was upheld during a hearing chaired by Arun Jaitley. Jaitley upheld the ban after finding 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 league said in a statement.
“Thus, Ravindra Jadeja committed a breach on two counts; firstly, by not signing the contract with the Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2010, wherein he wanted to declare himself free from contractual obligations and failed to discharge his obligations under the player trading rules,” the statement read. Jaitley also recommended that Mumbai should be warned for “having approached a player who was under an obligation to play for another franchise” and said “a more deterrent line of action should be considered” for future offences of this nature.
