Eating meat is the secret behind India’s success in cricket, claims Shahid Afridi; does vegan Virat Kohli agree?
Indian team has been making giant strides in the cricketing world from once being recognized for batters like Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag and Virat Kohli; India is now also known for producing world-class bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami.
Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, however, offered a strange logic to explain this paradigm shift in Indian cricket, saying that Indian bowlers have become stronger because they now choose to eat meat.
According to a report by GeoNews, Afridi, while speaking at a local sports show, said, “India has a huge 1.4 billion population, and the quality of cricket has changed [over the years]. Back then we used to say that they are producing great batters while Pakistan is creating good bowlers, but that was not the case as we were generating both bowlers and batters… However, their bowlers have now started eating meat, so they have gained strength,”
The former all-rounder also credited India’s investment in improving the grassroots cricket infrastructure in the country for the rise of many young cricketers in the country. Afridi said: “They improved their grassroots level cricket by giving the entire domestic system to a player like Rahul Dravid, who knows what the kids [domestic players] need to reach the top. They worked hard, and now they keep on producing talents. If India want, they can create two teams now,”
Does Virat Kohli agree with Afridi’s advice on eating meat?
Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli, who used to love eating non-vegetarian food, turned vegetarian in 2018 due to some health issues he was facing.
In an interview with former England cricketer Kevin Peterson, Virat Kohli had revealed the reason why he stopped eating non-vegetarian food. Kohli said, “I had a cervical spine issue, it gave me a tingling sensation in my little finger making it difficult for me to bat and then I got my tests done. What was happening was my stomach was too acidic, my body was creating too much uric acid, my stomach had started pulling calcium from by bones, making them weaker that’s why I got this issue”
Kohli had also responded to a fan comment on his post in 2022, clarifying that it was “the biggest myth in the world” that non-meat eaters cannot be muscular.
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Updated: 09 Oct 2023, 03:34 PM IST
