Indian shooters return after being forced to spend night in hotel lobby

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The Indian shooting contingent, including Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang, returned home on Monday after being forced to spend a night in a hotel lobby due to managerial negligence.

The shooters were in London to participate in the ISSF World Cup, a qualifying event for the Olympics.

The players were asked to vacate their rooms around midnight due to a miscommunication between the organisers and the agency responsible to manage the stay of the shooters.

The incident came as a huge embarrassment for the players as they were stranded in the hotel without any accommodation.

Team coach Deep Bhatia said the incident was humiliating for the team and expressed anguish over the inhospitable treatment meted out to them.

" The kind of hospitality, which should be given to any country by other nations was not accorded to us. The way we treat our guests in a hospitable manner, we were not accorded similar treatment,” said Bhatia.

The Indian High Commission, however, swiftly swung into action and players were soon shifted to another hotel.

Lashing out at England federation, Bhatia added that it was not the first time that they were subjected to such treatment in London.

“Unfortunately, this is not for the first time that such kind of treatment is meted to us, it is for the third and the fourth time that it has happened. In no other country, we face such a problem, it is only in England that we witness such problems," he said.

The organisers had, reportedly, reserved the room for the Indian contingent till April 28. However, later they asked an agency to extend the bookings for a day for which they had made the payments.

"After the booking, they suddenly told us to vacate the rooms around midnight, saying that they had not extended the booking. They had taken money and had issued a receipt as well," Bhatia added.