Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), in a press release, shed light on the media speculation that their co-owner Preity Zinta and chief mentor Virender Sehwag were involved in a verbal spat on Tuesday after the team lost to Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.

The team’s open and transparent culture, it said, has been misconstrued and highlighted in a negative manner.

According to an unnamed official quoted in a Mumbai Mirror report, Zinta “launched into Sehwag for the decision” of sending skipper Ravichandran Ashwin at No 3, ahead of more accomplished batsmen such as Karun Nair and Manoj Tiwari in KXIP’s match against Royals.

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But Zinta had refuted the claims in a tweet, saying “A conversation between Viru & me has been blown out of proportion & suddenly I’m a Villian!”

The full text of the Kings XI Punjab release:-

This is in response to the media articles that have been published in the last couple of days on the supposed disagreement which was reported after Kings XI’s last game.  

The stories have led to a lot of speculation and we at Kings XI Punjab would like to clearly state that as part of our management process, (as well as other franchisees) we review our performance on and off the field after each game through both, formal and informal discussions.

This is part of our standard operations review process which helps us to analyse our results and allow us to focus on the improvement required after each game, both on and off the field so that we can continue to improve in all aspects. 

The culture in Kings XI is one that is open and non-hierarchical, and is one which encourages open and frank debate by one and all across all levels with the common goal of continious improvement.  

It is unfortunate that this open and transparent culture has been misconstrued and highlighted in a negative manner, so as to tarnish and damage our image as well as that of the IPL