In the recent discussion, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra discussed the issue of whether Rishabh Pant should be allowed to enter the IPL auction. Pant is no doubt one of the players who will be very much active in the IPL 2025 auction after having been traded from the Delhi Capitals franchise. Speaking on Pant’s release, the former Indian cricketer and captain Sunil Gavaskar claimed that money was the fundamental cause for the player’s separation with the team. Still, in a statement that appeared to respond to Gavaskar in an indirect way, Pant indicated that his entry into the auction had nothing to do with the financial aspect.
Nevertheless, Chopra challenged Pant’s statements. He laid out the old tweet where Pant asked his fans, “If go to the auction. will I be sold it or not and for how much?”
“I watched a video in which Sunny Gavaskar mentioned that these things are done to come in terms and that some players have been paid upwards of Rs 18 crores, for example, Heinrich Klaasen was sold for Rs 23 crores and Virat Kohli for Rs 21 crores. So, most likely, it is Rishabh wanted more but wasn’t given as much, and that is the reason he is not playing for Delhi, but they would want to retain him and will play the RTM card because they need a captain as well,” Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“This was Sunny bhai’s thought process. He said that and Rishabh Pant immediately said that there was no way that money played any role which in turn can only mean that there was something else going on. Rishabh Pant actually started this. He had tweeted asking if he goes to the auction, will he be sold, and if sold, for how much. Why would you ask that question, Rishabh? That was a suggestion that everything is not well in the paradise of Delhi.”
Chopra also talked about DC’s reasons for letting go of Pant and expressed two variants. He believed that either DC were not keen on keeping him as the captain or the player may have demanded to choose his own support staff.
“You also tried to convince me that the financial negotiation has been finalized, but what happened after that? Clearly there are two things that may have occurred. Either Rishabh Pant may have been told something along the lines that they want to retain him but he will not be the captain or at least they will not ensure that he will be the captain. In this case, it is quite possible that Rishabh would have replied in negative when asked about his desire to stick around,” he said.
“And if it wasn’t because of this, the second thing could be that he could have requested for his own support staff because of the support staff being changed. In that case, Rishabh Pant could have put forward a demand of three or four members in his support staff team, and it would be a problem if they did not comply.”
