The rift between sections of the Indian media and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni escalated on Tuesday over Virender Sehwag's injury.
Rediff.com was the first to break the news that Sehwag was ruled of the ICC World Twenty20 after failing to recover from a shoulder injury sustained during the Indian Premier League last month.
The dashing opener underwent a five-minute stint in the nets on Tuesday during which he played around 12 deliveries before the decision to send to him back for surgery on his injured shoulder was taken.
Thus, at the pre-match conference ahead of Wednesday's match against Ireland, the focus was solely on Sehwag's injury.
Dhoni was already upset at the Indian media following reports of an alleged rift between him and Sehwag, which he had termed "false and irresponsible".
And things turned ugly when Dhoni said he would not be updating the media on Sehwag's fitness, but has informed the BCCI, who will inform the media appropriately.
Dhoni said: "Anything related to the fitness there will be a press release from the BCCI. Whatever is related to the fitness you will get from the BCCI. We will inform the BCCI and through proper channel. I am not saying on that."
That set the stage for a verbal duel between Dhoni and media personnel, the latter wanting to know why the Indian team is not ready to give updates when some in the media were already in the know about Sehwag being ruled out.
But Dhoni stood adamant.
A little later the BCCI came out with a statement confirming that Sehwag was indeed ruled out of the tournament and his place would be taken by Dinesh Karthik.
