Owner of the IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Sanjiv Goenka shared his plans regarding Rishabh Pant’s acquisition in the IPL mega auction at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last month. However, Pant became the most expensive player in the IPL auctions, heading to Lucknow Super Giants for a massive ₹27 crore. Pant and Delhi Capitals’ nine-year association ended, with him entering the auction for the first time since 2016 as well.
Sanjiv Goenka revealed his auction plans on The Ranveer Show podcast and said: “There was an emotion and a science behind it. They (Delhi Capitals) went till ₹26.5 crore for Shreyas so I had the feeling that Parth Jindal is so crazy for Rishabh that we should have 2x the bids, which he may not do. So when the bidding closed in the range of 21-22 cr, Delhi immediately raised their RTM. That means they were ready to go after him to any extent. It is not right for me to discuss or comment on why he wasn’t retained or why Rishabh chose not to be retained, but they were keen. Had they discussed for a couple of minutes and then raised their paddle it was another thing altogether but they immediately went for it. We need to notice all these things when at the table,” he added.
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“If you looked at Parth’s reaction then, it was as if the job was done for him. So looking at all of this, it felt it was a safe bid. In our calculations, had Rishabh not been picked, then an Indian anchor around whom we could build the team would have been difficult. You’ll get international players of strong calibre. The team balance is there, but I argue it wouldn’t. But that Indian core which I’m planning to build needs an Indian achiever and a leader. So out of all the players in the auction, I found Rishabh as the best-suited player for us,” he further added.
Sanjiv Goenka also said that he was indecisive about whether or not he would have gone past ₹30 crore but gave the hint that he could have
gone past ₹27 crore for Rishabh Pant as well.
“I was confident that we were going to Rishabh. Some could get him at 26.5 but at 27 only we would get him. If they had used RTM on 27, I would have personally been happy for Rishabh but disappointed from LSG’s point of view. Once you say you decided to RTM a player, you can’t backtrack on it. (On being asked whether he could have stretched the bid till ₹30cr) I don’t know if we would have gone till 30 but there isn’t much difference between 27 and 28,” Sanjiv Goenka concluded.
