Australian cricket team takes leaf out of Indian football

NEW DELHI: With the aim of beating India in their backyard, Cricket Australia left no stone unturned to ensure that the Baggy Green had the best of facilities and brains at their disposal.
First, they roped in England spinner Monty Panesar to work with their spinners, trained in Dubai for almost a month to acclimatize themselves to similar conditions as India's. They also hired former India player S Sriram as spin consultant on this tour.Another India link which has so far gone unnoticed has emerged in the form of Danny Diegan, the All India Football Federation's strength and conditioning coach.
Before the start of the second Test in Bangalore, Aaron Kellett, the physical performance coach of the Australian team, invited Diegan to share his experiences and knowledge of working in India with the coaching and support staff and the players of the Australian cricket team. Speaking exclusively to TOI, Diegan revealed that travel and nutrition were some of the topics that were extensively discussed during the interactive session with the touring Aussies.
“We talked a lot about travel and nutrition, how to manage diet since the players will be travelling a lot (during this four match series) and staying in hotels for over a month, adapting to different cultural trends wherever they go,” said Diegan, who is originally from Sydney.
“There was obviously the travel issue as well -how to manage all the flying and being able to play full strength, especially when you don't have much time. They wanted to talk about this since I spend more time in India than them,” he added.
Diegan, who joined the AIFF in March 2015, pointed out that adapting to different climatic conditions tests the fitness of athletes.
“It is very difficult for an athlete to compete in different weather conditions. For example, the Indian football team is going to camp today (Friday). We will be playing Cambodia and Myanmar.
“It's no coincidence that we are training in Mumbai, where the climate is similar. The cricket team plans very much along these lines. I spoke to Aaron (Kellett) and we (Aussies) are doing the right things.”