Denied biryani, Dhoni shifts hotels

It is not often that MS Dhoni loses his cool, but if reports are to believed, the India captain was upset by a rather trivial matter: home-cooked Hyderabadi biryani sent by his international team-mate Ambati Rayudu.

The day before Chennai Super Kings were handed a three-wicket defeat by Kolkata Knight Riders in the Champions League T20, Dhoni and his Super Kings team-mates were busy shifting hotels from the Grand Kakatiya to the Taj Krishna. The reason: Grand Kakatiya's strict policy against consumption of outside food in the hotel premises.

Though the Grand Kakatiya was willing to relent a bit and allow the players to partake the biryani in their rooms, Dhoni was adamant on using the board room, after which the hotel put its foot down. Dhoni's response was to leave the hotel itself, and take his squad along.

While BCCI and Super Kings officials, as well as the hotel staff, said that the players had abruptly moved out on Tuesday, they refused to give a definite reason.

"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 Grand Kakatiya, said.