Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 22, 2014)

Filmmaker Priyadarshan and his wife Lizzy were gearing up to make an all-is-well appearance today in Hyderabad at their team Kochi Warriors’ semi-final match in the CCL (Celebrity Cricket League). But the couple was in for a rude shock when they got a call yesterday afternoon saying that their players had misbehaved on the flight to Hyderabad and been off-loaded.

The pilot took a U-turn mid-air and returned to the Kochi airport following complaints by irate passengers and cabin crew. Enquiries revealed that their team had misbehaved not only on board but also in the airport lounge.

 Priyadarshan and Lissy quickly got their act together and arranged the tickets for the players to take the next flight and reach Hyderabad in time for the match.

A source told Mirror, “The Kerala Strikers were in a celebratory mood and started creating a ruckus within minutes of entering the airport. The authorities warned them before they checked-in. Yet, they continued to create trouble even after entering the aircraft."

After a stern warning by the cabin crew, they went quiet. But 15 minutes after they took off, the Strikers were back to their rowdy ways much to the horror of their co-passengers.

Said the source, "The cabin crew and the pilot discussed the matter and the latter decided to divert the plane back to Kochi and offload the team. After a brief stopover in Kochi, the plane took off for Hyderabad again, but without the Kerala Strikers.”

Admitting to the fracas, Lizzy who is the co-owner of the team told Mirror, “I don’t know what exactly transpired. I believe one of the airhostesses had a problem. But yes, the flight returned to Kochi and my boys were asked to disembark and take the evening flight. I will definitely have a word with them when I meet them in the stadium today.”
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Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; February 22, 2014)

 Kerala Strikers, the cricket team that boasts of noted actors from the Malayalam film industry, is in the news for the wrong reasons. A source says that this team — a group of 27 people, including senior names such as Mohan Lal, Suresh Nair, Santhosh Sleeba and Prajod Kalabhavan — misbehaved with the Indigo airline staff and were then asked to disembark.

Rajeev Pillai, a member of the team, says, “We were travelling from Kochi to Hyderabad along with some senior members of the team. Soon after, two airhostesses walked in and just as they shared safety instructions, some team members started clapping. Having won our previous match and thus made it to the semis, we were in a cheerful mood and were busy cracking jokes. But these airhostesses went on to complain to the captain that we misbehaved with her. He then made an announcement that the plane would take off only if we disembarked from the flight.”

Pillai recounts that that the team repeatedly questioned the airline as to why they were being asked to leave. “The other passengers supported us as well; they even told the airline authorities that these airhostesses were arrogant. But the captain was adamant and we finally had to give in to their demands. We then had to wait for over five hours before we took another flight. We even missed our practice session because of this incident,” he says.

Anuj Rai, spokesperson of the Celebrity Cricket League, confirmed the story. “The team has been in high spirits due to its recent wins and the airline crew probably asked them to maintain silence. What followed was perhaps an ego clash and as a result, the team had to get off,” he said.