IPL 2024: Hardik Pandya banned for one match for multiple Code of Conduct breach

Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians captain, has been fined after his team maintained a slow over rate during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match against Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on May 17.

As it was his team’s third offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over rate offences, Pandya was fined INR 30 lakh and banned from playing the team’s next match. The rest of the members of the Playing XI, including the Impact Player, were each individually fined either INR 12 lakh or 50 percent of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser.

Interestingly, Mumbai Indians have ended their IPL 2024 campaign and it is obvious that Hardik or MI won't play any other game this season. However, there's a catch. With the imposition of ban from one match, the star cricketer will not be able to take part in the next match of IPL 2025, regardless of the team he features in.

We did not play good quality of cricket: MI skipper

A dejected skipper of the historically successful franchise, Hardik, after a disappointing season said, “Quite difficult. Did not play good quality cricket, eventually costed us the whole season. It's a professional world. Have to always come out and put our best foot forward. But yes, as a group, we could not play quality cricket or smart cricket. Too early to point out what went wrong. The whole season kind of went wrong. We can pass this game as another one.”

Notably, the five-time champions had high hopes before entering into the season, especially with the star-studded team they came with. However, lack of good captaincy and poor individual performances led MI to become the first team to be eliminated from the competition. Hardik & Co. ended the season with just four wins from 14 games, and remained at the bottom of the table. Nonetheless, the franchise will be hoping for a fresh return to the competition when they pick their men for the 2025 edition.