Sourav Ganguly will not be playing for money but to prove he is still "good enough" in this form of cricket, according to a top official of Sahara Pune Warriors.
In a dramatic decision which was the talking point in Indian cricketing circles on Tuesday, the IPL debutants announced that they were signing up the former Indian captain who went unsold in the last auction.
Director of the Pune franchise, said they had been in touch with the retired international for the last couple of days, but could only confirm him as a replacement for the injured medium pacer Ashish Nehra.
"The fees did not figure prominently in our discussion as he would be paid on a pro-rata basis for the remaining matches," he said.
Ganguly, who played for Kolkata Knight Riders for the first three seasons of IPL, told the media in Kolkata: "I was approached by them yesterday [Monday] and I've confirmed about my availability to them. I am leaving for Mumbai and the details will be announced there." Dismissing any speculation about change in captaincy, the Pune official said Ganguly will be purely be in the capacity of a player while Yuvraj Singh and Graeme Smith will continue to be the captain and vice-captain, respectively.
"The decision to play him or not rests completely with the team management. He is joining the side [in Navi Mumbai] and will train with the coach and support staff. I don't think he will be playing in our next match [against Mumbai Indians]," Sarkar said.
The move is, however, seen in some quarters as a desperate move by the IPL debutants, who are languishing at the bottom of the table with six consecutive losses from eight games and are also hamstrung by injuries.
"In the last four matches, we have lost from winning positions. We were also done in by injuries to four key players. Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lankan all-rounder was ruled out, Australian Twenty20 vice-captain Tim Paine and South African skipper Graeme Smith too are injured while Ashish Nehra too was battling with injury.
"We waited for Nehra's fitness report before getting the BCCI green signal," Sarkar said.
Incidentally, after Ganguly went unsold in the auctions last January, Subrata Roy, the Chairman of Sahara Group, had expressed interest in the possibility of taking him on board even in the capacity of a "mentor" — an idea that did not meet with the approval of the team's Australian coach Geoff Marsh
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