Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni is not known for expressing his emotions in public. However, he was once irked by a hotel for not allowing a home-cooked dish in its board room. As a result, the entire team’s accommodation was affected because of the same. Interestingly, this incident happened 6 years after Dhoni’s amusing claim of reducing his milk intake due to inflation.
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It all happened on the eve of Chennai’s first Champions League Twenty20 2014 match against Kolkata Knight Riders in Hyderabad. Residing in ITC Kakatiya originally, Super Kings were subsequently shifted to Taj Krishna within no time. It is to be noted that the reason behind this sudden shifting remains unconfirmed to date much like rumours of Dhoni consuming six litre of milk daily.
MS Dhoni Changed Hotel For Not Allowing Ambati Rayudu’s Home-Cooked Hyderabadi Biryani
Yet to represent CSK at the time, former India batter Ambati Rayudu was still plying his trade for Mumbai Indians when this incident had happened. Knocked out of the tournament in the qualifying round itself, a warm host in Rayudu had decided to present a Biryani party to Dhoni and his teammates in his home city.
However, as per reports, ITC Kakatiya strictly denied the Super Kings to have Biryani inside the board room. It is noteworthy that they allowed the players to eat inside their rooms, but outside food was strictly prohibited in the common area of the hotel. Even Dhoni tried his best, but the management didn’t change its stance. Hence, Dhoni allegedly didn’t accept a refusal in the best of manners which forced him to change the team’s hotel.
Arshad Ayub, the then HCA (Hyderabad Cricket Association) president, had confirmed that the team had changed hotels but had no update on the reason behind the same.
“Yes, CSK were originally booked at ITC Kakatiya but they chose to move to Taj Krishna on Tuesday, that’s all that I am aware of since this is something that we are not directly handling,” Ayub was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
Speaking to the same newspaper, Chennai spokesperson Russell Radhakrishnan also didn’t confirm the Biryani story. All he cited was a requirement related to accommodation.
“We needed more accommodation which [Taj] Krishna could provide. It was a personal decision and we do not need to comment on the reasons behind the move.”
Living in ITC Kakatiya, Knight Riders continued their stay at the same property for they didn’t face any issues which would’ve further increased the task of the security team working with CLT20.
MS Dhoni Had Joked About Reducing Milk Intake in 2008
In 2008, Dhoni had represented India in 148 matches (including 35 as captain) across formats at the time of addressing a rumour about his substantial milk intake for the first time during a conversation in an Indian Air Force Officers’ event in Jaisalmer.
During the interaction, he joked around how he reduced his milk consumption from six litre to one litre because of inflation. He answered this on a fitness-related question.
“I used to have almost six litres of milk before. Now, I have reduced it to one litre every day, thanks to the high prices,” Dhoni had said as quoted by The Times of India.
For the unversed, Dhoni has always been affectionate towards the armed forces. Over a decade later, he had presented a cheque of INR 2 crore to the CRPF on Super Kings’ behalf.
