Indian cricketers have never failed to win hearts with their on-field performances. But many knew of the field, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and therefore they came up with restaurants so as to serve their fans.
While for some the ventures ended in disaster, others are quite successful at it and have now got franchises in a few big cities.
Here, Sportskeeda looks at 5 of those restaurants and the fate they suffered.
#5 Sourav’s—The Food Pavilion (Sourav Ganguly)
Ganguly was hardly putting a put wrong in 2004. He was the captain of the team, scoring runs with the bat, picking wickets and back home in Kolkata he opened a restaurant called, ‘Sourav’s—The Food Pavilion’.
For the first few years, it was quite a success. Many diners would go in because of the ambience which was top notch. At first, Sourav co-owned the place but in 2006, he became the full-time owner of it. But that is when the Chappell-Sourav controversy was at its peak. Sourav had to concentrate on the game, on-field issues and business started dwindling, it never recovered from the jolt thereafter.
It is quite strange that in a city which literary worships him, the restaurant failed to take off and in 2011 it was closed down.
Sourav’s brother Snehasish who also used to look after the business had told IANS,” Sourav is very busy. I am also busy. We were not getting time to run it properly. So we took this business decision.”
#4 Tendulkar’s (Sachin Tendulkar)
Sachin first started his entrepreneurial journey in 2002 when he opened a restaurant called Tendulkar’s in Mumbai, his hometown. He partnered well-known hotelier Sanjay Narang to set it up and then inaugurated another one named,’Sachin’s’ in Mumbai’s northern suburbs and in Bangalore.
He had quite a keen interest in the business and even suggested how the chef apron would look like. ‘Why don’t we do a piping along the edge of the apron and make it about a quarter inch thick?’ I hadn’t thought of this, but it looked really great. This gives you an idea of how he (Tendulkar) thinks of everything in detail,” Narang was quoted by Forbes.
However, he failed to taste success despite being a global star. Both restaurants were shut down by 2007. Thereafter there have been reports of him of making a comeback in hospitality but so far he hasn’t announced anything.
#3 Sehwag’s favourites (Virender Sehwag)
Following in the footsteps of his idol and opening partner Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag opened a restaurant in Delhi’s Moti Nagar in 2006.
It was a vegetarian restaurant called,’ Sehwag’s favourites’ and it did well for the first few months. But then Sehwag ran out of form and the diner ran out of customers.
It did not end happily for the explosive Indian opener as the restaurant had to be closed down. Sehwag also chose to move to court against his partner and his firm Creative Strides Taste Buds Pvt. Ltd.
“It’s a case of pure cheating. I cannot discuss this any further as the matter is in court,” said Latika Khaneja, director of Collage Sports Management which handled Sehwag’s account in 2009 to Live Mint.
#2 ZK’s (Zaheer Khan)
The crafty, wily former Indian team fast bowler has tasted a lot of success in the hospitality business as he has gone on to open a chain of restaurants. Zaheer’s first venture was in 2004 when he opened a restaurant in Pune called ZK’s.
Later he became the owner of a company called Banquet Foyer, which deals with corporate events. He didn’t stop there.
In 2013, Zaheer kickstarted a lounge called ‘Toss’ in Pune which was inaugurated in presence of some of his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammates.
“Injuries forced me to think about things and I got into it. Obviously, cricket has always been a priority and it will be a priority going forward as well. But this is something where I have formed a right team and things just started to unfold and I was able to learn things quicker,” Zaheer had said to CNBC-TV18.
#1 Jaddu’s Food Field (Ravindra Jadeja)
India’s spin bowling sensation Ravindra Jadeja opened his first restaurant in 2012 when he was still trying to cement a place in the Indian team. He threw open the gates of the diner on December 12, 2012. It was also the day he was called to represent India in Test matches.
The launch took place while he was away with the Indian team. Later he told the Times of India he opened the restaurant on that very date as it was numerically a special day.
“Obviously it was a numerically special day — 12.12.12. But apart from that, I consider 12 as my lucky number. I was also born in the 12th month of the year — December 6, 1988. I always wear No 12 jersey. And I was also picked for Test cricket in the 12th month of 2012,” he had said.
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