Delhi Capitals newly-appointed head coach Hemang Badani has shared some surprising details on Rishabh Pant‘s non-retention by the franchise. Notably, Pant, who had joined DC in 2016, was released by the side ahead of the IPL 2025 Auction. The wicketkeeper-batter then scripted Indian Premier League history by becoming the costliest player with a tag of Rs 27 crore. Lucknow Super Giants bagged the player at the mega auction. The bidding war even saw DC trying to use their Right-To-Match card and buy back Pant for Rs 21 crore. As per the rules of the RTM option, LSG were offerred a chance to make a new and final bid, which DC failed to match.
In a recent interaction, Badani has revealed that Pant didn’t want to be retained by the DC franchise as he felt his worth was more than Rs 18 crore.
“I think it’s the other way around. He wanted not to be retained. He said he wanted to go to the auction and test the market. If you want to retain a player, both parties (the team and the player) have to agree on certain things. We tried talking to him, the management tried talking to him. There were a lot of phone calls and messages exchanged,” Hemang Badani told Subramaniam Badrinath in a YouTube show as quoted by India Today.
“Yes (Delhi Capitals were interested in retaining him). He said he wanted to go to the auction and test the mark. He said he had a feeling that there were chances he would get more money than the highest cap for retained player, which is Rs 18 crore.
“And, at the end of the day, he felt he was worth more. And the market said the same thing. He got Rs 27 crore. Good for him. He is a very good player. We will obviously miss him. But, life goes on,” he added.
Interestingly, earlier in a social media post, Pant had said that leaving DC had nothing to take with money. “My retention wasn’t about the money for sure that I can say,” he had written on X.
Meanwhile, DC co-owner Parth Jindal’s statement regarding the topic was on similar lines.
“It was just a different philosophy of how he wanted the franchise to operate and how us – the owners – wanted the franchise to operate. That’s what caused it (Pant’s departure). There’s nothing to do with money,” Jindal had told ‘ESPNCricinfo’.
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