Mumbai, Apr 1: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni today revealed that the players were not served food on time at Mohali and had to rush for it just before the toss prior to the high-voltage India-Pakistan World Cup semifinal clash on Wednesday.
He said the Hotel Taj staff in Chandigarh, where the players had stayed, could not provide food on time. The team had to leave for PCA Stadium at Mohali early and had their lunch after warm-up and just before the toss.
"I did not want to say this. But, before the semifinal, the first meal the team had was at a quarter to two because the food was not served at the hotel. They said it would take over an hour. So we turned up at the ground, there was not 100 percent food, there was nothing actually at the ground," Dhoni told reporters on the eve of the World Cup summit clash against Sri Lanka here tomorrow.
"So we had an early warm-up at the ground and said OK, the meal would be after the warm-up. We went into the field and did the warm-up and the meal we had was before the toss," he added.
Dhoni, however, sought to downplay the incident saying that it was not a "distraction".
"These are the things which can distract you to some extent, but what is important is that what you can do about it. Because you may scream but you would not get the food. What is important is to use the time in the best possible manner. I don't think that should be a big concern or a distraction at all," he said.
"The situation was different over there because there are not many big hotels in Mohali. Here you have plenty of big hotels and I have quite a few friends who'd be ready to bring food in half-an-hour's time," Dhoni added. PTI
