Brisbane: The Indian team who arrived in Brisbane for the fourth and final Test against Australia was in a blow on Tuesday (January 12) as the players stayed at a hotel which ‘lacked basic facilities’.
“There was no room service or housekeeping facilities. The gym is very basic and not of international standards and the swimming pool can’t be accessed. This wasn’t what they were promised when they checked in,” a senior BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
India will be playing the fourth and final Test at The Gabba, Brisbane from January 15-19 where the rush of COVID-19 cases and a border lockdown with New South Wales has led to a harsh hotel quarantine for the Men in Blue.
Asked if the players were being allowed to mingle, the Board source said, “Yes, they have been provided with a team room and are allowed to meet each other inside the hotel.”
When asked whether the team had protested with the hotel authorities the source said, “When the manager enquired about how these things are not being taken care of, all they said was, the rule applies to both Indian and Australian teams. There is no one team that has been subjected to hard quarantine rules.”
According to TOI, “We are locked up in our rooms, have to make our own beds, clean our own toilets. Food is coming from a nearby Indian restaurant which will be given to us on our floor. We can’t move out of the floor that’s been designated to us,” the members of the Indian contingent reckoned when asked to describe the hotel premises.
Australia had won the opener in Adelaide within three days before India came back to clinch the second Test in Melbourne. The two sides shared the honours in an engaging third Test in which India produced a brave performance in chase of a huge 407.
