An angry Yuvraj Singh and his Kings XI Punjab franchise co-owner Preity Zinta on Friday dismissed media reports that the star batsman was deliberately underperforming in Indian Premier League after being stripped of captaincy as completely baseless.
"I am disgusted and horrified that a news reporter can stoop down to such a level. I, in all my career, haven't seen such a disgusting piece of news," Yuvraj said on his Twitter page, reacting to reports that his poor run in the IPL was deliberate as he was upset at being replaced as captain of the side by Kumar Sangakkara.
"There is no truth to the speculative reportage that is being carried in various segments of the media and these get accentuated when the tide is not in our favour. We are focused on the game today (against Royal Challengers Bangalore) and by reporting such stories we are distracting the players hence we request the media not to resort to such speculative reporting," Zinta said. Yuvraj said he was being targetted because of his lean patch and blamed the recent injury breakdowns for the current lack of form.
"To come out of injury is not easy and I've had 3 in a row and I hope to bounce back soon. I always try to give my best no matter what the circumstances and right now I am struggling with my form. It happens to every player," he said.
Yuvraj has totalled a little over 100 runs in seven IPL games so far and there were reports today suggesting that he wanted to shift to another team -- speculated to be Mumbai Indians -- ahead of the current season, and Kings XI Punjab management had complained to BCCI about the development. But BCCI denied having received any complaint on Yuvraj's desire to leave Kings XI Punjab before the Indian Premier League III.
"There is no truth in such claims that a complaint was made to BCCI regarding Yuvraj. Yuvraj is a great player but is currently out of form, which can happen to any cricketer. People should not read too much into the issue," BCCI spokesman Rajiv Shukla told PTI. "I think Yuvraj is just out of form and to say that he has intentionally under-performed is extremely unfair and wrong," Shukla said. Yuvraj's mother Shabnam too defended her son and said he never contemplated any change of team.
"An icon player cannot move out of his team till at least three years and Yuvraj knows this. He wasn't thinking about anything of this sort. All this is because he is not in good form," she explained. PTI
