Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni led his entire team out of a Hyderabad five-star hotel last week, after the hotel authorites prevented them from consuming some home-cooked biryani, which was sent by Dhoni’s Indian teammate Ambati Rayudu, according to media reports.
Dhoni, furious at the staff of Hotel Grand Kakatiya for refusing to allow the team from enjoying some delicious Hyderabadi biryani, immediately made the team management cancel the booking and made the team move to rival Taj Krishna.
In what is a sign of Dhoni’s clout over the management and staff, N Srinivasan and some BCCI officials also followed Dhoni & co. to Taj Krishna. Although Rayudu, who had sent the biryani, was himself away in Raipur playing for the Mumbai Indians that evening, it is believed that Rayudu had requested for the biryani cooked at his home to be sent to the hotel.
The Grand Kakatiya staff later confirmed that the Chennai Super Kings moved out, but they refused to reveal the reasons for the team doing so. "You should ask the Chennai team management what happened and why they vacated," said Suhasini, a member of the hotel's public relations team.
"We're a five-star deluxe facility and there are five other such hotels in the city. One is free to pick one's place of stay," George Verghese, the general manager of the hotel, was quoted as saying.
"I am bound by confidentiality agreement with our guests and cannot vouch for your information, although I cannot stop you from writing it."
A top BCCI official, who did not wish to disclose his identity, also confirmed that CSK did change their place of stay, but he refused to divulge further on the matter. "We don't know if biryani was the cause of the shift. I'm told Dhoni was not happy with the hotel," he said.
CSK spokesman Russel Radhakrishnana said, “If you have information about such incidents you may write so. All I can say is we were not happy with the hotel and we moved out.”
