After going unsold in the players’ auction, former India captain Sourav Ganguly made a dramatic entry to the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.
According to sources, the ace batsman was signed for $ 4,00,000 but will be paid for the remaining matches of the tournament. If Ganguly plays the six league matches, he will be earning around Rs 76 lakh for the fourth season of IPL. Sahara-owned Pune Warriors signed him as a replacement for injured medium pacer Ashish Nehra.
“We were already in talks with Ganguly and we decided that the amount of experience that Sourav has, it would help the team. So we finalised Ganguly late on Monday night,” said Abhijit Sarkar of Sahara Pune Warriors. Sarkar told Business Standard he was being signed only for this season and the decision on his future with the team would be taken later. Ganguly’s presence could give a major boost to the side which has lost the last six matches after a promising start with two wins. The Pune team is at the bottom of the points table this season.
Earlier, speculations were rife that Ganguly would play for Kochi Tuskers Kerala, replacing skipper Mahela Jayawardene who was supposed to join the Sri Lankan team for the England tour.
Ganguly, who had captained Shah Rukh Khan co-owned Kolkata Knight Riders in previous editions of the Champion’s league Twenty20, was given a cold shoulder and went unsold in the January players’ auction despite a rather modest base price of $400,000.
