NEW DELHI: An Indian restaurant that catered to the Indian women's cricket team this year and claims to be the lone Indian restaurant inside the Sydney Olympic Park, says it will wait for the quarantine period for the Indian cricket team to end before it sees any Indian player visiting it.
Foreign tours for Indian cricketers are usually hassle-free as the players move around freely, and on long tours Indian cricketers manage to eat in restaurants unlike at home where every move of theirs is under scrutiny.
India skipper Virat Kohli had, in the past, said that tours away from home allows him to relax, roam freely on the streets, sit in cafeteria unlike at home.
This time though the situation on the tour of Australia will be different initially as under quarantine at a hotel in Sydney Olympic Park, the Indian cricketers will be allowed out only for practice. Though the New South Wales government has said that it would provide players full freedom, that will happen only after the completion of the mandatory quarantine period which ends just before the first ODI on November 27.
However, there is some relief as the cricketers are allowed to order in a bite if they wish to from outside, like it was during the Indian Premier League and Women's T20 Challenge in the United Arab Emirates, it has been learnt.
Maharaja's Indian Cuisine, the Indian restaurant comes up as the first option as it is situated inside the Sydney Olympic Park and is no stranger to hosting cricketers.
A member of the staff of the Maharaja Indian Cuisine told IANS from Sydney that the restaurant catered to the Indian women's cricketers when they had toured there during the World T20 earlier this year.
The India women played two out of their six matches in Sydney. "We normally take our stuff and set up food at the place we are invited to like it was in the case with Indian women's team. This time we've had not any demands up until now. However, we don't expect to see any Indian cricketer at our place till the quarantine period ends and hopefully they will come after that," a member of the restaurant staff told IANS from Sydney. "But we won't be surprised if someone comes to pick up a food parcel."
Cricket Australia, however, seems to have put first-class arrangements inside the village for food, going by those in place for the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL).
The WBBL village inside the Sydney Olympic Park has an expansive buffet each for breakfast, lunch and dinner behind a picket fence with hotel staff members in masks and gloves asking the players their preference. In most Australian states, self-service is not allowed in buffet. Which is why a picket fence has been set up.
Wonder if any of the Indian cricketers would find the portion served too small! IANS