The trades were confirmed to ESPNcricinfo by a BCCI official though the IPL and the franchises have not yet made it public.
While Titans’ purse will increase by INR 15 crore, which was Hardik’s salary, they will also receive from Mumbai an additional transfer fee which they will need to disclose to IPL. Hardik stands to earn up to 50% of that transfer fee from Titans based on the mutual agreement.
According to the IPL rules, the player trading window starts a month after a season ends, stays open up to a week before the auction date, and then continues up until a month before the start of the next season. So the current trading window is open until December 12, with the auction scheduled for December 19, and it will open again on December 20 up to a month before the 2024 season begins.
Mumbai had released 11 players by the retention deadline, freeing up INR 15.25 crore in their auction purse. While that amount was just about enough to pay for the Hardik trade (INR 15 crore), it would have left Mumbai with very little to spend at the auction. By trading Green to RCB in an all-cash deal, however, Mumbai added another INR 17.50 crore to their purse.
ESPNcricinfo learned Mumbai had approached at least two franchises to do a player swap before the retention deadline but the deals fell through.
When the Titans franchise, owned by global fund manager CVC Capital Partners, came into existence in 2021, they were allowed to pick three players from the pool released by other franchises before the 2022 mega auction. Titans signed Hardik and Afghanistan allrounder Rashid Khan for INR 15 crore each, with Shubman Gill their third pick at INR 7 crore.
It was at Mumbai, however, that Hardik began his IPL career and developed into one of the best allrounders in the game. Bought for INR 10 lakhs as an uncapped player in 2015, Hardik was a part of Mumbai’s title-winning seasons in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. Having been retained by them ahead of every auction until 2021, Hardik was finally released ahead of the 2022 mega auction, a decision that came as a surprise. Mumbai were allowed to retain only four players that year and they chose to keep Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard, paving the way for Titans to sign Hardik as their captain.