Not often do cricket teams change hotels midway through a match. Thanks to logistical nightmares, the Rest of India (RoI) players had to switch to another hotel after the opening day's play of the Irani Cup tie against Ranji Trophy champion Gujarat.
For once though, the BCCI, which directly manages the Rest of India team, is not to be blamed.
Sportstar understands that the BCCI's logistical team could not accommodate the RoI squad in a five-star hotel, as is the norm for most domestic teams, due to non-availability of rooms. As a result, the squad, which includes Test stars like Cheteshwar Pujara and Karun Nair with national selector Sarandeep Singh as coach-cum-manager, was booked at an executive hotel in Marine Lines, at walking distance from the stadium.
According to a BCCI insider, the board considered "proximity to the stadium" while booking the hotel. However, a player revealed that "most players found the hotel inconvenient" thus prompting them to be moved to a "better hotel".
Comfort v proximity
Perhaps the fact that Gujarat has been put up at a five-star hotel in Parel, about an hour's drive from Brabourne, didn't go down well with the RoI players.
The BCCI had no issues in acceding to the request. But scarcity of rooms in five-star hotels in south Mumbai meant the players have been shifted to a five-star property in suburban Bandra. It will result in the players spending at least an hour one way for each of the remaining four days.
"The players wanted comfort of the rooms instead of avoiding the commute. And the board has no problem with it," the insider concluded.
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