There were reports of co-owner Preity Zinta and mentor Virender Sehwag getting into a heated argument after KXIP lost to Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur on May 8.
As per reports, Sehwag was sternly reprimanded by Zinta after the loss, forcing the former India and KXIP opener to consider ending his association with the IPL team. However, the Kings XI Punjab management has refuted the claims by calling it a misconstrued" and "negative" interpretation of the team's "open and transparent culture."
"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," a statement from the franchise read.
Even co-owner Preity Zinta took to Twitter to clarify her stance and called the whole new piece, fake.
Mumbai Mirror gets it wrong again because we didn’t do Media net & pay them to write articles cuz that’s the only time they get it right. A conversation between Viru & me has been blown out of proportion & suddenly I’m a Villian ! Wow ! #fakenews https://t.co/qGOYhCiVtV
— Preity zinta (@realpreityzinta) May 11, 2018
Franchise’s statement terms the team culture "open and non-hierarchical" that encourages "open and frank debate by one and all."
"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," it further states.