Punjab Kings (PBKS) pacer Arshdeep Singh found himself embroiled in controversy following a viral Snapchat video shared on Thursday (May 14), involving Mumbai Indians (MI) batter Tilak Varma.
In the clip, Arshdeep addressed Tilak as “oye andhere” (meaning "hey darkness" or "hey dark one"). Following the initial remark, the left-arm quick continued the joke by asking Tilak if he had applied sunscreen.
While Tilak initially ignored the comment and later laughed it off, the video garnered negative attention on social media, with netizens labelling Arshdeep’s remarks as "racist".
In fact, a fan asked him to drop "Punjab" from the IPL franchise's name, claiming he was bringing embarrassment. Arshdeep hit back with a sharp response, writing: "What have you done for Punjab, Singh saab? People who still ask family for chips and cold drink money are now advising me on Punjab?"
On the eve of PBKS' match against RCB in Dharamsala, head of sports science Andrew Leipus addressed the social media chatter around Arshdeep.
"I don't follow a lot of social media myself, so I know there's been a bit of chatter behind the scenes of various things going on, vlogging and whatnot. I'm not across that. In terms of his behaviour, Arsh is pretty much a flat line. He's not up or down. He gives his best out there,” Leipus said in the pre-match press conference.
Leipus indicated that physical restrictions were likely behind the bowler’s recent on-field inconsistency,
“We've been working together a little bit, and looking at his body, there may be restrictions that could be a reason for some of his performances being up and down. We think we've hit on a bit of a winner there. He's been feeling a lot better in the last couple of weeks, physically. Overall, he's pretty consistent with his behaviour and his attitude. He's a very loud person in the dressing room. That hasn't changed. He's not up and down. He's very calm,” Leipus added.
Andrew Leipus, however, highlighted a growing concern regarding modern cricketers' excessive phone usage.
"I'm old. I don't really partake in a lot of social media. You can check my name out there. I'm probably the wrong person to be asking. You look across every team, you'll see guys sitting there on their phones in the buses. There's not a lot of chatter going on. It is a problem, I think. I've got young kids. I'm trying to steer them away from it," Leipus stated.
"On the other side of the coin, you've got a lot of commercial operations going on there. You've got to find that right balance. One of the best things the ICC ever did was take phones away. When we go into the dressing room, guys can start talking again. When you're in that team environment, it's not an issue. It's outside that when it becomes an issue. I've heard rumours, but I don't really have time to pay attention to that. I think it's potentially something that needs to be addressed,” he remarked.
