The nature of the longer form of Cricket means that professional players spend a substantial amount of time abroad, and if not abroad, away from home. As such the players play dietary roulette, with the crux of their meals depending on the continental cuisine of the country in which they happen to be competing. I caught up with two prominent figures in the England Cricket set up; world No.3 seamer Stuart Broad, and England One-Day captain Eoin Morgan to find out a little bit more about their food preferences and cooking habits.
The venue for our conversation was the quite aptly the Taste of London event in Regent’s Park which, while only in its second year, is essentially a bastion for guilt free food – and drink – consumption. To officially open the festival the two England cricketers, joined chef Emily Dodds for head-to-head live ‘cook-off’, but prior to that I sat down with the players for a tête-à-tête in the Etihad Airways Hospitality suite.
In a relaxed manner we glossed over the recent form of the England Cricket team in the test series, looked ahead to the One-Day series against Sri-Lanka, but more importantly discussed their food habits while on tour.
STUART BROAD
Do you get time to do much of your own cooking when you’re on tour?
SB: We’re quite lucky in cricket because we’re so much in hotels, it could be 250-260 nights a year, we eat in so many different types of restaurants and different places. I mean I actually love cooking at home but, I actually do it twice a month because that’s all I have the opportunity to do. When you do it so rarely you can actually make a bit more of an experience out of it, whereas if you have to do it every night, it could get on top of you a bit. Having travelled a huge amount to India, Sri Lanka, where you can try so much different food, I feel lucky to have tried quite a lot.
In preparation for a match do you need to watch what you eat?
SB: Out of match periods, we’re encouraged to keep carbs quite light in the evenings, but when we do get into a competitive period, we’re encouraged to get a lot of carbs – especially before a bowling day, where we could run up to 17-18km in a day. So you do need those carbs to be able to do that. I wouldn’t say I was superstitious, but I do like routines, so before a bowling day I do like to have steak, sweet potato mash, vegetables, that sort of thing, as it’s something I feel comfortable with. That said with the amount of travelling we do, that’s not possible in some places; for example when we travel to Bangladesh, you might not be able to get that so we just have to do with getting used to the local cuisine.
Have you had any food ‘horror’ stories when on tour?
SB: I’ve been ill quite a lot! I think when I first when went to the sub-continent I made the mistake of trying to stick to eating English type food, and the more experienced I’ve got, the more time I’ve spent there I do try and eat the local cuisine and I think over time your body just gets a little bit more used to that. Especially at the grounds for Lunch & Tea, you don’t have that much choice, you get the two dishes that are put in front of you, and you just get them down you. But nutrition wise we do use a lot of protein shakes to ensure we’re getting the right nutrients that will help us to perform.
EOIN MORGAN
When you do get the opportunity to cook, what is your go-to dish?
EM: I normally cook breakfast in our house, because I’m a poor cook and breakfast is pretty easy. So bacon and eggs – I can do eggs benedict but I don’t make the hollandaise sauce, so I cheat there a bit. So yes, I think breakfast is the easy one for me.
As we left the Etihad hospitality suite and made our way to the cook-off, both players were in good spirits, but in the end it was Stuart Broad that triumphed, showing an enthusiasm for cooking that mirrored his love for the game, while Eoin Morgan – in the true manner of a captain – graciously conceded defeat. A job well done by both.
ETIHAD.com
Etihad Airways, a global partner of Taste Festivals, is the first ever official airline partner of the England Cricket teams. Encompassing England’s domestic international and overseas cricket tours, all England national teams fly with Etihad Airways as part of the partnership. Etihad Holidays will have a range of cricket tour packages for the upcoming England tours to Bangladesh and India. www.etihad.com
