We have all heard of the phrase “too many cooks spoil the broth”. This time round, the English cricket team which will soon travel to India for a five-Test series will have a chef on board. “My goodness,” as the Brits would exclaim – this is not the first time they are doing something so bizarre to up the performance in India.
Bazball has been on the menu but bringing a cook/chef is an attempt to ensure the Englishmen do not end up eating too much “curry”, as the average Indian meal is referred to. To be sure, if you visit England, establishments serving “Indian curry” are famous. Even a non-Indian selling such stuff will pass it off as Indian curry. And it’s usually gorged on.
Maybe, the English cricketers are carrying on from their tour to Pakistan, where they had a chef on board. One is not sure how sumptuous the menu was, but for the record, before the Test in Islamabad, the chef himself, and some players, was down with food poisoning!
How did that happen? No conspiracy theories, please.
Maybe, for the India tour, which is definitely going to be a hard one for the visitors, they need to bring everything. We never heard of the English team bringing a cook to India for the ICC World Cup last October-November, when the travel was far more hectic. Maybe, in bad times, they want a home-made meal to cheer them up.
In the good old days, when the English cricket team visited India, New Delhi and then Calcutta (now Kolkata) were cities that induced cold sweats. The fog, smog and pollution were feared. In addition, the old “Delhi belly”was also cited as an excuse, though food may not have been the real problem.
Hygiene standards in India have risen with five-star-plus hotels in India. Chefs now serve various menus — Indian, Chinese, European and even Asian meals –that are now top class. They also specialise in preparing food according to the needs of a certain person, like low salt, little spice or even minus the Indian “tadka”.
Someone in England has obviously come up with this great idea that the chef serves them meals in the hotel and at the venues which will be to Brit standards. From the good old days of fearing water quality to consuming the best bottled water, India has everything. Including the favourite English swig, beer!
Back to serious cricket, and if a chef can add to the performance level of the English side, it would be nice. They should be allowed to cook their own meals, spice it up in the Tests and then relish the challenge. Half the time, mentally, the Englishmen have lost the battle.
Maybe, tickling the palate and preparing full English breakfast – eggs, sausage, bacon, crisp toast and their own tea – will provide better quality contests this time. The first stop is Hyderabad, a city which has great cuisine on offer. Who knows, the English cook coming to India may himself fall for the city’s famous kebabs. Here is hoping the Englishmen come with the stomach for a fight, on and off the field!
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