Revenge, it’s often said, is a dish best served cold, like India did the other day against Pakistan. But the Indian cricketers aren’t in any mood to digest the cold food served to them post-practice.

A PTI report said the Indian team was cut up with the food on offer after their optional training session on Tuesday in Sydney, where they take on the Netherlands on Thursday. A few members decided to return to their hotel and eat there instead. All the fast bowlers were rested for the session as were all-rounder Hardik Pandya, batter Suryakumar Yadav and spinner Axar Patel. The after-practice fare, it was learnt, included snacks, sandwiches, fruits and falafel.

With the training getting over close to lunchtime, the players, perhaps, were expecting a full-course meal.“It’s not like any boycott... Some players did pick up fruits and falafel but everyone wanted to have lunch and hence they had food going back to the hotel,” an unnamed BCCI official was quoted as saying by PTI.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is responsible for providing food and lodging during the T20 World Cup. In a bilateral series, it is the duty of the host association. The post-practice menu is the same for all teams at ICC tournaments. Indian players are, therefore, not getting hot food after practice, which, BCCI sources said, is always provided otherwise after an intense training session.

“You can’t just have a cold sandwich (not even grilled) with avocado, tomato and cucumber after two hours of training. That is plain and simple inadequate nourishment,” the official grumbled. It’s not unusual for travelling sportspersons to find the food unpalatable in distant lands. Earlier this year, for example, athletes at the Beijing Winter Olympics had complained about the “miserable food” they were being fed.

Valeria Vasnetsova, a Russian biathlete, had alleged that she was served the same inedible meal thrice a day for five days in a row — it left her so emaciated that her “bones (were) sticking out”, according to a report in the Daily Mail. India’s star table tennis player Sharath Kamal Achanta had similarly complained about the food served at the athletes’ village in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games where, after a gruelling match, they got a meal of “bread, Nutella and muesli”.

By contrast, the Indian contingent at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 was treated to a lavish spread that consisted of hot delicacies ranging from butter naan, chhole bhature, butter chicken to biryani and a motley of curries.

Even the Indian cricket team has during overseas tours often taken a chef along to ensure proper food is laid out. For instance, during the 2014-15 tour of Australia, the Indian team management put up a menu card for the contingent irrespective of the venue. The menu necessarily would comprise chicken, roast lamb, smoked salmon, low-fat cheese and snacks like raw nuts and muffins. All hot meals had to be served at more than 60 degrees Celsius. But victory on the cricket field is not always through the stomach as MS Dhoni’s men found out, losing the series 2-0.

Of course, India’s demands were not as extensive as England’s during their Ashes tour of 2013-14. The English team management insisted on peri-peri, breaded tofu with tomato salsa, quinoa and cranberry breakfast bar, mungbean curry with spinach and pistachio and ginger biscotti. Of course, it didn’t help them much as they were whitewashed 5-0.

Just like they were 3-0 on their 1993 tour of India where their manager, the former captain Ted Dexter, had blamed “dodgy prawns” (alongside smog, a strike by Indian Airlines pilots and the facial hair of some English cricketers) for the team’s debacle. A good spread doesn’t always help on a cricket pitch. Food for thought, anyone?