A stickler for fitness and very particular about his food intake, Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis is travelling across India with a personal chef to ensure that he is getting a low-carb diet during the ODI World Cup.
The 34-year-old all-rounder is on a ketogenic diet (high-fat, low-carb) with baked oats infused with protein, one of his favourites, according to a report in cricket.com.au.
Mumbai-born Velton Saldanha, a chef trained in French cuisine, travels with Stoinis while he is in India and cooks him meals out of the Australian team’s hotel kitchens, according to the report.
“Quite a few of the Indian boys do it, that’s where I got the idea,” Stoinis told cricket.com.au’s Unplayable Podcast.
“I’ve always been quite strict with my food and all that stuff in my preparation.”
The Australian team has its own chef, who oversees food preparation as they move around the country, but Stoinis has gone a step further in his pursuit of peak performance.
“Garlic naan is out. Gluten-free banana bread and shepherd’s pie with roasted cauliflower mash are in. A roast butter chicken, the intersection of Saldanha’s French training and his Indian heritage, has also been a hit,” the report said.
“Stoinis is getting by on baked oats — at least for the small carbohydrate portion of his meticulously curated diet,” it said.
“By the end of the World Cup, Saldanha might be able to sell the ‘Stoinis Oats’ as a standalone dish.”
Stoinis had met Saldanha, who has worked in fine-dining restaurants in Chicago and New York, during this year’s Indian Premier League on a recommendation from his Lucknow Super Giants teammate KL Rahul.
Saldanha founded Mumbai’s Chutney Collective during the pandemic.
Stoinis, who does not consider investing on a personal chef as waste of money, has struggled to play consistently in this tournament.
He missed the opening match with a hamstring and quad concern. His scores in the three matches he has played so far are 5, 20 not out and 21.
Maxwell ‘does’ it once again
Bangalore: Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell will miss the World Cup match against England due to concussion after falling off a golf cart this week, but head coach Andrew McDonald said on Wednesday he expects the player to make a full recovery.
Maxwell was riding on the buggy following a round of golf ahead of their next match in Ahmedabad on Saturday, when he fell off the back.
Cricket Australia’s concussion protocols mean that Maxwell’s condition will be monitored for a few days.
“He’s doing fine and we feel as though it will be a reasonably straightforward return to play protocol,” McDonald told reporters.
Maxwell has scored 196 runs, including a century, in the tournament so far.
McDonald said: “I suppose the fortunate part was there was no other injury sustained which could have been much worse than it is. I think it rattled everyone to be fair once it came to the conclusion there was a concussion and he was going to miss a game.
“There was nothing untoward in the behaviour throughout the day, it was a clear-cut accident. Unfortunately it’s compromised what we are doing as a team.”
This is not the first time in recent memory that Maxwell had had a mishap. He broke his leg in a freak accident at a birthday party in Melbourne last November and had also missed Australia’s recent tour of South Africa with an ankle issue.
Reuters
