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Cricket PlayersSanjiv Goenka clears the air on Rishabh Pant rift reports, vehemently denies interfering in cricketing matters at LSG
Hopefully, after Sanjiv Goenka’s clarification, there will be less scrutiny of him and the franchise going forward.
Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka has cleared the air on reports of confrontations with captain Rishabh Pant and that he is the interfering type in cricketing matters.
KL Rahul captained Lucknow Super Giants in their maiden IPL season in 2022, and he didn’t appear to have great relations with Goenka, especially towards the end of his time there. In 2024 particularly, there were several media reports which suggested Goenka wasn’t happy with the way the team was playing. After Rahul left, following the 2024 edition, Pant was brought on board as team captain ahead of the 2025 season. But things didn’t change much for the franchise, both on and off the field.
In the ongoing season, again those things are happening. But as per Goenka, reports of problems with Pant are especially fabricated. At NDTV’s ‘Walk The Talk’ show with Rahul Kanwal, Goenka looked rather amused that so many lies and fabrications have been created around the team and everyone associated with it. He totally dismissed that he and Pant were not on the same page, and that he had problems with the wicketkeeper batsman.
“You know, with Rishab, there has never been a scolding situation, ever. This is social media. Sanjiv Goenka did his hand like this, which gets them views. Right? So to that end, they decided, ‘let’s make Sanjiv Goenka a punching bag’,” he said on the show.
65-year-old Goenka, however, admitted that the bombarding nature of the coverage of the IPL has made him a little conscious now, and that he has fallen in line to some extent. “Yeah, accepting that [that he has been under scrutiny too much also because of his emotional nature]. I'm now learning that.
"You know, I am a person who naturally talks with gestures. So I'm now learning to keep my hands behind, you know. Because you can take an angle out of context. There are so many morphed versions, there are so many AI-generated versions. But that's it. I mean, what can I do?
“I can only be myself. And at the end of the day, I'm fairly clear on that,” he said.
‘I have a team of experts, they do it’
Finally, Goenka said there was no question of his interfering in cricketing matters since it wasn’t his forte. For that, he had a team in place, and that sees to those issues.
“You know, I mean, for a person who's never really played cricket, it would be foolish to tell my cricketers how to play, right? I have a team of experts, and it's a big team that does that [addressing cricketing issues].
LSG played the play-offs in their first two seasons, but in 2024 and 2025, they finished seventh after sub-standard performances. In the ongoing edition, they are again seventh with two wins and three losses in five matches. They next play hosts Punjab Kings on Sunday evening.
