Rift over hotel room reason behind Raina’s IPL exit: Sources

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Ever since Suresh Raina returned to India from the UAE after opting out of IPL, several reasons are being cited and rumours doing the rounds.

One of the reasons being cited is that he returned because of his children while a few suggested that his uncle was killed in Punjab.

However, sources on Sunday told IANS that the reason was more “stupid”. “It was a stupid reason, nothing much. He was not happy with the room given to him. It all started when he came to the UAE, along with the team. Other CSK members tried to convince him but he didn’t listen to anybody,” sources in the UAE said.

Meanwhile, N. Srinivasan, Chief of India Cements which owns CSK, has also made some shocking revelations. He was quoted as saying by Outlook that Raina found the rules of the bio-bubble claustrophobic and wanted a room with a balcony like CSK captain MS Dhoni had.

Srinivasan also said Raina’s sudden exit left the team in a bit of shock but skipper Dhoni “was in complete control of the situation.”

Raina was unavailable for comment.

If sportspersons, who are used to playing in open areas, do feel claustrophobic in closed environment, it is not surprising or Raina’s is not the first such case.

In May, when India’s 1975 World Cup-winning hockey goal-keeper Ashok Diwan returned from the USA, after meeting his son, he found his 11-day quarantined in a Delhi hotel like a “jail” and felt suffocated in his room with no fresh air and sealed windows.

“I was told about the timings of the delivery of food. The person who would bring food to my room would keep the tray on a table outside the room and I had to bring it inside. Besides, I had to do everything else, like washing clothes, cleaning bathroom, and even changing bedsheets etc, which they would keep outside the room and leave. No one was allowed to come inside the room nor was I permitted to go out, so I had to do everything,” Diwan was quoted as saying in media reports. “Only I know what I went through in those 11 days.”

–IANS

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