Andrew Leipus is, by all accounts, a high-quality sports activities scientist. The Australian has labored on the highest ranges of the sport for many years, and his experience in retaining elite cricketers match and useful is just not in query. What’s in query is why, on the eve of a must-win match – a real season-defining conflict in opposition to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Dharamsala – Punjab Kings thought it was acceptable to ship their head physio to face the press.
Almost a dozen journalists had made their approach to the HPCA Stadium on Saturday. They’d questions. Actual ones. The sort that, forward of a knockout-or-bust contest after 5 consecutive defeats, virtually write themselves. What is the group mixture? How is the dressing room dealing with the strain? What has modified in coaching? Who do you flip to when your season is slipping away? These had been the tales ready to be instructed.
As a substitute, Dharamsala bought Andrew Leipus.
To be honest to the person, he was gracious. He confirmed up. He answered. When requested concerning the significance of the toss, he stated: “Yeah, it is most likely past my scope a bit bit… The blokes do not speak about it very a lot. It’s what it’s.” When pressed about two consecutive losses on this floor and the situations for a day sport, he stated: “Once more, past my scope. I am not concerned in something to do with the cricket aspect of issues. I have a tendency to remain in my lane.”
He’s proper, in fact. That’s precisely his scope. That’s exactly his lane. The issue is that Punjab Kings despatched him to a spot the place his scope was all the time going to be inadequate, the place staying in his lane was all the time going to depart journalists – and readers – with nothing of substance. It isn’t Andrew Leipus’s failure. It’s a selection made by the franchise. And it’s a selection price analyzing.
READ BETWEEN THE LINES?
Punjab Kings are in freefall. 5 losses on the trot. A squad that started the season with six straight wins and real title ambitions is now scrambling to qualify. And round this collapse, a circus has taken form.
There was Arshdeep Singh’s Snapchat, which seemingly had no off change. First got here the clip that inadvertently confirmed Yuzvendra Chahal allegedly vaping on a group flight – a video that prompted the BCCI to concern an eight-page disciplinary advisory. Then got here one other Snapchat, this time catching the pacer making colour-based remarks towards Mumbai Indians batter Tilak Varma – calling him “Andhere” and drawing an unflattering distinction with a fair-skinned teammate. Then, as if to finish the hat-trick, Arshdeep posted a sharp-tongued reply to a fan who questioned his dedication, asking: “What have you ever carried out for Punjab, Singh saab? Individuals who nonetheless ask household for chips and chilly drink cash are actually advising me on Punjab?”
Then there have been the studies of a break up dressing room, of gamers sad with captain Shreyas Iyer’s angle, of Prabhsimran Singh allegedly placing on 10 kilograms, of gamers lacking flights and skipping early morning coaching periods. The franchise pushed again, they usually had been effectively inside their rights to take action. A lot of what circulated had no named sources and no verified information, and any organisation can be entitled to contest that. In its authentic kind, their assertion took direct intention at sports activities journalists particularly.
Co-owner Preity Zinta amplified the pushback, drawing a pointy distinction between reputable criticism and what she characterised as deliberate misinformation. The assertion was then quietly edited, the sharper language softened. The sentiment, although, was clear: Punjab Kings felt the protection had crossed a line.
NOT JUST PUNJAB KINGS
There’s a broader pattern right here that Punjab Kings usually are not alone in following. IPL franchises, and even worldwide sides, are more and more reluctant to ship gamers or decision-makers who can meaningfully clarify performances, ways or group calls to press conferences. A part of that is comprehensible. At a important second in a event, you don’t want your captain or your finest bowler sitting in entrance of a financial institution of microphones and cameras, fielding uncomfortable questions on group dynamics or kind slumps. That may be a reputable place.
However the international commonplace, significantly in soccer, is that the boys who matter entrance up. Managers on the sharp finish of a season, coaches whose jobs are on the road, captains whose groups are in disaster – they arrive they usually face it. The press convention is just not a courtesy. It’s accountability.
There’s additionally the broadcaster dimension. Within the IPL’s media ecosystem, the broadcasters maintain one of the best entry. The Participant of the Match walks straight right into a post-game interplay with the commentary group. The breakout performer of the night will get the plum TV slot. What stays for the written press – the journalists who will produce the previews, the analyses, the long-form accountability items – is, too typically, a assist staffer with restricted scope and a mandate to say as little as doable.
After which there’s the social media calculation. Franchises more and more consider they don’t want conventional media. Why would you, when your Instagram reel will get three million views and your post-match recap on X reaches followers immediately? Punjab Kings, particularly, have cultivated a social media presence that’s aggressive, reactive, and – when the group is profitable – relentlessly self-congratulatory. The sledging and banter they deploy on-line, which they body as enjoyable, continuously ideas into one thing extra uncomfortable. Followers and journalists have known as it out. If you find yourself dropping six straight, that on-line bravado curdles shortly.
IS THE MEDIA ALSO TO BLAME?
None of this implies the media’s palms are solely clear. Unverified claims flow into as information. The Prabhsimran weight story, the dressing room rift – a lot of it emerged from nameless social media posts with no named sources and no confirmed information. Cricket Twitter doesn’t all the time await information earlier than it developments. Franchises usually are not flawed to push again on that.
However right here is the problem: when a journalist travels to Dharamsala for a press convention – the one formal, structured event the place entry is assured, the place the journalist is there particularly to achieve data and ask the questions their readers can’t – sending a physio is just not a pushback in opposition to faux information. It’s a refusal to interact in any respect. It’s a group saying, in essentially the most well mannered doable means: we aren’t concerned about your questions.
The stress right here is just not actually about punishment or payback. It’s a couple of relationship that solely works if either side maintain up their finish. Punjab Kings have each proper to demand accuracy. Journalists have each obligation to offer it. However correct journalism requires entry. And if the entry on supply is a physio who can inform you nothing about ways, choice, or the psychological state of a group in disaster, then the press convention has change into a formality – one thing to be ticked off, not engaged with.
Each issues could be true directly: a number of the protection of Punjab Kings this season has been irresponsible, and the franchise’s resolution to ship somebody who couldn’t reply the questions that mattered most did nothing to enhance it.
A physio at a pre-match press convention, on the eve of a must-win sport, with a dozen journalists ready and a season in disaster – that’s not media administration. That’s media avoidance wearing a polo shirt.
Andrew Leipus stayed in his lane. The query is: why did Punjab Kings ship him to a street they’d no intention of travelling?
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