Being a professional sportsperson is not easy. Among various challenges, the biggest has to be maintaining a healthy body, to ensure they perform their best on field. A Test match lasts for 5 days, and for a team to win, it is imperative that all the members give it their best and it’s not easy task to deal-with. For a body to keep performing all 5 days, utmost care must be taken. And thankfully for the players, regular breaks are scheduled during the game. So they can relax and recover from the grueling battle on the ground. But the questions which arises is, what Cricketers eat during lunch or tea break?
Read- Revealed: What do cricketers drink during drinks break
Generally a normal human will always like to know the diet plan of cricketers during a test match. Although, nobody except cricketers, can answer this question perfectly. But few spectalations have been made which hints about the answer.
A Strength & Conditioning Specialist at National Cricket Academy said, a lot of change has happened in what cricketers eat / drink during Test / ODI / T20 matches.
For tests, they have a complete meal plan ready for all 5 days, and already conveyed to the hotel where players are staying during the match days.
During the test match, each player consume balanced food consists of protein, fats and carbohydrates.
What cricketers eat during lunch and tea of a test match
Breakfast: Cereals, muesli, fruits, juices, milk, eggs (scrambled, omelette), bread, idli, pasta, sprouts.
Lunch: Usually lunch consists of roasted chicken, lamb, paneer etc. with lots of soups, butter, cheese, fruits and boiled vegetables.
Tea: During tea breaks, players can have tea / coffee. But, if a team is playing in Indian subcontinent during summers, players take energy or sports drinks to keep themselves hydrated. These drinks contain potassium, sodium, fat etc.
Dinner: After match, players take some recovery drinks. Dinner consists of protein rich food like chicken, fish barbecue with salads and soups.
The batsmen who are currently on-field consume less but healthy food.
Indian cricketer Nayan Mongia was asked the same about it, he said “Players get a variety of options of what to eat when they return to the dressing room for lunch. What a player eats, depends on his personal preference, and also whether or not he has to take the field in the next session. The batsmen who are going out to bat would generally just have a protein bar or a banana or some other fruit because a stomach filled with food won’t help them on the field. Everything they eat is low on fat and high on carbohydrates.”
For Tea
The items for Tea would would comprise of Tea, coffee, sandwiches and some energy drinks to get themselves re-hydrated for the rest of the day’s play
And Nayan Mongia’s mention about the tea-break was “most players like having a cup of coffee and a light snack that’s easy to digest.”
The diet for the modern cricket has been a very healthy and balanced one. However, it was not the story in the earlier times.
Kapil Dev once said in a commentary referring to food they used to eat during matches. He said, Hamare jamane me aisa lagta tha ke shadi me aaye hai. (In our days, food would look like we have come to a big fat Indian wedding.)
Recently on the Cricket Show (aired in Australia) there was a segment centred around lunch time. Simon O’Donnell discussed Australia’s past tours of India and the type of food players consumed. Most Aussies favoured Tandoori Masala (with chicken), cooked in a clay oven – one of Northern India’s traditional dishes.
Science and technology has played a vital role in modern diet of cricketers. Regular changes are made in the diet chart, as far as a research demands new supplement in the diet.
