BCCI doesn’t advise players what and what not to eat: Treasurer Arun Dhumal on dietary plan row

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Treasurer Arun Dhumal on Tuesday said that the cricket board has no role to play in determining the food choices of its contracted players. Dhumal added that the players are free to choose what they eat and what they don’t as he dismissed reports that claimed the board had prepared a new dietary plan for the players of the senior men’s national team ahead of the Test series against New Zealand.

Arun Dhumal, speaking to India Today, said no directive went from the BCCI to the players on dietary plan and that no such thing was even discussed by the top brass.

Dhumal’s comments come after it emerged that the Indian cricket team management had prepared a diet plan for the Kanpur Test in which players have been advised only Halal meat and asked to refrain from eating pork and beef “whatsoever in any form and variety”. Questions have been asked as to how the team management can restrict players from preferring their choice of food during the Test series against New Zealand, starting November 25.

‘BCCI HAS NO ROLE TO PLAY IN FOOD CHOICES OF PLAYERS’

“This (diet plan) has never been discussed and will not be enforced. I don’t know when this decision was taken or if it was. As far as I know, we never issued any guidelines related to diet plans. As far as food habits are concerned, it is the individual choice of players, BCCI has no role in it,” Arun Dhumal said.

“This ‘halal’ thing may have happened on any player’s feedback at some point in time. For example, if a player says he doesn’t eat beef and if a foreign team comes then the food should not be mixed. This halal issue has never been brought to BCCI’s attention,” he added.

“The BCCI doesn’t advise any of its players what to eat and what not to eat. Players are free to choose their own food. Whether they want to be vegetarian, it’s their choice, whether they want to be vegan, it’s their choice, whether they want to be non-vegetarian, it’s their choice.”

Notably, every time an Indian cricket team travels abroad or a foreign team visits India, a dietary plan is shared and majority of the times, even in major international competitions, the menu has directives for Halal meat. It is to be understood that the India squad for the New Zealand team also has a Muslim player.

Notably, India Today Group broke the news of the Indian cricket team’s dietary plan. Notably, the dietary plan has not come from the Board of Control for Cricket in India but the team management which has to convey the catering needs to the host board only via the BCCI.

India and New Zealand are meeting in a Test series for the first time since the World Test Championship final earlier this year. While Rohit Sharma led India to a 3-0 sweep of the T20I series earlier in November, Ajinkya Rahane will lead India in the Test series opener, starting November 25 in Kanpur.