Preity refutes rumours of discrimination

Says a source close to Bollywood actor: "Preity and Ness (Wadia) are aghast at these stories. The last thing they have on mind is to discriminate against any player. But you see, there's only one super-luxury hotel in Mohali and the main players in the squad of 16 were all housed there.

"In addition, Ness and Preity have decided to take on 10-12 players as trainees in a special development programme meant specially to create new cricketing talent. These boys were put up in a separate hotel but only because there was no room at the Taj. The team spirit didn't suffer for a second just because the team of trainees stayed elsewhere."

When contacted, Preity told IANS: "There's no discrimination. We are in fact, trying to keep the game as much free of glitches as possible. Such negative stories aren't helping our efforts at all."

As for one of the trainee cricketers speaking on the alleged discrimination, the source said: "We're pretty sure the cricketer didn't mean to sound as though he was discriminated against, simply because that was not the intention at all."

Preity intends to be totally immersed in Mohali team's activities for the next couple of months.

In July, she leaves for the 'Unforgettable world tour' with Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. This would be her second concert tour with the Bachchans.

In fact, she flew back from Mohali to Mumbai for a day, last week, to shoot a promotional video for the concert. "The Bachchans are my buddies. They asked me, and I agreed," Preity explained.