Cricketers need to watch their eating habits closely.
Cricketer Aakash Chopra, in his recent book, Beyond the Blues, makes an interesting point about the diet and eating habits of cricketers. Chopra says that once after a day’s play in a Ranji Trophy match, the cricketers were served samosas as snacks!
You can’t expect much at a domestic game, but with the Indian Premier League’s second season just round the corner, we spoke to a fitness expert to get his views on what should be the ideal diet of a cricketer.
According to Jock Campbell, former conditioning coach with the Australian cricket team, the diet of a cricketer depends on his role in the team.
For instance, a fast bowler’s diet is a bit different from say a wicket keeper’s. A batsman needs muscle strength — as do bowlers — and require energy to fuel exercising muscle and explosions of speed between the wickets.
Wicket keepers, on the other hand, require stable blood sugar and high levels of concentration and like other team members are dependent on adequate hydration to reduce fatigue.
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“They have to eat little at regular intervals, then eat a healthy snack in between meals,” he says. The most important aspect is to drink as much fluids as you can.
Eating right can make a lot of difference to a player’s performance. “The energy levels go up or down drastically depending on the kind of food you are consuming,” says Campbell.
Sugar and processed foods are a strict no-no. Unlike sports like football or rugby, there aren’t special diets which cricketers are put on, but they have to follow more than the basic principles of healthy eating. We wonder how Shane Warne managed to adhere to strict diet plans.
