Bosso, Dembare bar players from press interviews

SUCH is the pressure of the Battle Zimbabwe that both giants Dynamos and Highlanders have now issued gag orders on their players from giving press interviews in the build-up to the big game on Sunday.

This is the biggest Castle Lager Premiership game in the country and this contest has been spiced by the fact that it could have a huge bearing on who wins the title.

Maybe its fear of revealing their secrets that have forced the giants to impose a media ban on their players.

A game between Dynamos and Highlanders, especially if it has a huge bearing on the championship title, is too good to be ignored by any serious stakeholder.

But players at both Highlanders and Dynamos have openly said their coaches have barred them from giving pre-match interviews.

The media's duty is not to put pressure on the teams, but to get the feeling of what's happening in their camps to the ordinary fans.

The media also plays the double role of marketing the match.

But this appears to have been ignored by the teams with training sessions now being done behind closed doors and players being barred from giving interviews, save for a selected few at the beginning of the week.

Not even a single press conference has been held yet when the same clubs were begging for money to play in the Champions League a few years ago, the media was their all-weather friend to send their SOS to potential sponsors. Senior Highlanders players said only coach Kelvin Kaindu was allowed to give interviews while the situation is the same at Dynamos where players said they had not been cleared by the coach Callisto Pasuwa or team manager Richard Chihoro.

Efforts to get clearances for the players to give their voices were fruitless and then looking for former players like Zenzo Moyo, Masimba Dinyero, Tapuwa Kapini, Lloyd Mutasa, Thomas Sweswe, Stewart Murisa became the only option for voices.