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Post the conclusion of a special hearing held in Mumbai, its Chairperson - Mr. Arun Jaitley today, announced his decision to uphold the IPL Governing Council's decision to impose a one year IPL playing ban on cricketer Ravindra Jadeja. The decision was taken by Mr. Arun Jaitley post hearing representations from Ravindra Jadeja and both the franchises involved namely the Mumbai Indians and the Rajasthan Royals.

IPL Governing Council Member and DDCA President, Mr. 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. In his report to the IPL Governing Council, Mr. 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.

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. 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 Indians 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.

Mr. 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.

It was however, clarified that the ban applied only to Ravindra Jadeja's playing in the IPL, which is the sub-tournament of the BCCI and would not extend to matches organized by the BCCI or where the BCCI selects a team to represent India.

Lalit Modi, Chairman & Commissioner, IPL further added that the Governing Council will take these issues very seriously and 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.

In the hearing report, Mr. Arun Jaitley has 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 Ravindra Jadeja, amounted to a franchise, having approached a player who was under an obligation to play for another franchise. Under these circumstances Mr. Jaitley has give 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. In the future, Mr. Jaitely has 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.

File Photograph: ICC World T20