The sudden decision of the Chennai Super Kings team to move out from ITC Kakatiya to Taj Krishna in Hyderabad a day before the Champions League T-20 match against Kolkata Knight Riders (September 17) has set tongues wagging on the reasons.
While there have been reports that the abrupt shift to another hotel was because of a dispute over not allowing outside food (home-cooked biryani and brought by India cricketer Ambati Rayudu), cricketing sources insist it was more about the issues with service in general to the entire entourage.
Even the Hyderabad Cricket Association was in the dark about the episode. “We have not been informed that the CSK has moved out from the hotel. We came to know about this move by CSK only during our meeting with N. Srinivasan, ICC chairman and team owner of the CSK,” a top official confessed.
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Interestingly, CSK is now in Bengaluru for the remaining league matches and will return to Hyderabad only if it makes it to the semi-finals, scheduled in Hyderabad on October 2.
“It has been a regular practice for Mr. Srinivasan to stay in the Hotel Taj Krishna as the BCCI has a tie-up with that group and I don’t think his decision had anything to do with that of the team. It can only be coincidental as usually Mr. Srinivasan hosts a dinner to his entire cricket team before any major event,” the official said.
Neither Ambati Rayudu nor any of the officials of the CSK or the hotel management have confirmed or denied that the decision to move was just because of they were not allowed to consume outside food. “Both the hotels are on our security priority list, so we did not have any issue. It would have been a problem if a player wanted to check into any other place,” said a security official, pleading anonymity.
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