Cricket is a popular sport all over the world. It played with bat and ball between two competitive sides, including 11 members each side. Cricket is played in three different formats called T20, ODI, and Test. Test cricket lasts very long compare to two other forms. It is performed for five consecutive days, approximately 7 hours per day! It means more than 45 hours in 5 days when ODI cricket lasts more than 7 hours and T20 cricket barely for around 4 hours.
So, cricketers have to maintain their fitness to spend that much time in the field. They need to provide their body with enough food to train hard for playing a game, recover from that, and prepare for the next match or training session.
Therefore, cricketers need to establish a daily diet habit that will provide them enough nutrients and calories they need every day. The diet pattern varies one to another cricketer. It depends on the body structure of a cricketer and intensity of the game and training sessions and how much time they get before another game or training session.
Diet of training
Cricketers should eat fruit, vegetables, milk, egg, yogurt, cheese, and other dairy products, wholegrain foods, meats, and foods that contain much protein three times a day. If the training session lasts long, they can eat some extra snacks one or two times.
Drinks and minerals
Drinks are crucial for a cricketer cause they spend a lot of time on the field in a hot and humid condition. It can dehydrate them if they don't drink enough. To hydrate the body, they need to drink when opportunities arrive, and such as during over changes, boundary hit, drinks break, fielding in the boundary line, etc. Dehydrate body can't make the right decision cause it affects your brain directly. And also can't rush, bowl fast and throw quickly. It will be an awful situation if a cricketer affected by sunstroke. So, every cricketer should drink water every 1-2 hours in a game.
Diets during the game day and recovery
Cricket is mainly a summer sport and generally played in hot and humid conditions as we know that's why sports drinks are essential for this type of situation to keep players hydrated and should add ice to their drinks to keep them fresh. They should eat snacks every hour, which can easily be digested when they are waiting to bat. They can also drink smoothies, fruits, and sandwiches to strengthen their bodies to avoid snacks with high fat.
After the game ends, they should immediately eat a meal for the recovery. It should be a heavy meal, including protein, carbohydrate, and fluids. Though there is a tradition of consuming alcohol in several countries after winning a game, it should be avoided. Nutrition scientists strictly prohibited players from drinking alcohol cause it damages tissues from recovery directly.
So, if you are a professional cricketer, you have to repeat the process day after day, and that's how the life of a cricketer goes. The more you maintain your daily diet habit, the more you will be fit to play and save yourself from an unwanted injury.
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