Image courtesy of: Zimbio

“I’d dry retch for the next three days”

Legendary Australia pace bowler Merv Hughes has taken a jab at England by poking fun at their healthy dietary plans, stating that he would “dry retch for the next three days” if he had to eat some of those dishes.

England’s 82-page cookbook, which was leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald, includes 194 dishes and drinks and instructions on how these meals should be prepared.

Some of the dishes listed in the cookbook were a mouth-watering mungbean curry, piri-piri breaded tofu with tomato salsa and Moroccan spiced griddled chicken fillets.

When asked if he would like to try the piri-piri breaded tofu with tomato salsa, Hughes, who has an infamous reputation for drinking pints of beer, said: “I’d dry retch for the next three days. Give me a ham and pickle sandwich. As I say to people who talk about going on a diet, ‘Eat foods you don’t like because you don’t like much of it and by the sounds of it they’re going to have a lot of this crap left over.”

Former Australia batsman Dean Jones also joined in the fun, saying: “Ultimately they’re setting themselves for a nice little whack between the ears. And hopefully it comes in the first Test then I think the Australian supporters will ask what sort of dish they’d like in the next Test.”

However, Hughes admitted that the days of pizzas, burgers and french fries have long gone since cricketers are much more health-conscious nowadays.

He even went on to speak about how former spin king Shane Warne used to order burgers and french fries via room service and leave the tray outside other rooms so that the team physiotherapist Errol Alcott would have no idea what the players had eaten.

“It didn’t matter which ground, normally there was a cold meat and salad, roast of the day, a choice of fish and chicken,” Hughes added. “Errol Alcott would request food we wanted to eat, getting rid of rubbish food. All the good food he ordered we didn’t eat.

“The boys could eat the low fat bars because they tasted like crap. The dietary requirements of players these days, and that’s what frustrates me, is almost worth more than the players taking wickets and making runs.

“These days there’s a dietitian, a fitness adviser and a physio who all have to justify their positions, so everyone’s got to make a splash. They could just back off and let the guys make some runs and take some wickets.

“It just shows how far the game has come. It’s all about looking after the players.”

However, Hughes conceded that the Moroccan spiced griddled chicken fillets did sound highly tempting.

“Blokes all over the world are the same, they just eat what’s there,” he said. “The spicy Moroccan chicken caught my eye, that looked all right.”