Indian team management asks Cricket Australia to strike beef off the menu

Beef has been a hot topic in India in recent times. When Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) tweeted a photo of the menu of the Indian Cricket Team on their tour of England, it outraged a section of fans. The tweet came on Day 3 of the second Test between India and England, that was played at Lord’s, and the reason for people’s outrage was that the menu had a ‘beef’ dish, that went by the name of ‘Braised Beef Pasta’, among other dishes on it!

After India were bowled out for a meagre 107 in their first innings, when pacer Mohammed Shami’s double-blow reduced England 89-4 at lunch, BCCI had tweeted, “A well earned lunch for #Team India…”. The tweet didn’t go down well with a section of fans, who were fuming over beef being served to the players.

Here’s the tweet

As a result, ahead of the all-important series against Australia, the BCCI has recommended to Cricket Australia (CA) to strike beef off the Indian Team’s menu. A report in the Mumbai Mirror on Thursday said, an advance party, that travelled to Australia from the BCCI a couple of weeks ago to inspect the level of arrangements and ensure smooth travel, practice, and diet plans are sorted, asked the authorities at Cricket Australia (CA) to include vegetarian dishes on the menu with enough supply of fruits. The party also requested CA if the dishes could be more ‘Indianised’.

“Players often complain about the blandness of food served in Australia. There are a few vegetarians in the team who really struggle at the grounds. The inspection team has also roped in an Indian restaurant in Australia to supply curries to the boys,” a source close to the inspection party was quoted as saying in the Mumbai Mirror.

India are scheduled to play three T20Is, four Test matches and three ODIs Down Under against the struggling Aussies. The T20I series, Test series and ODI series will start on the 21st of November, 6th of December and 12th of January at the Gabba, Adelaide Oval and SCG respectively.

~ Written by Nahmat Maeraj