Jaffa Cakes, Soup and a suitcase full of?

All hail to Mr A.“Freddie” Flintoff after squaring the series against India this morning whilst most of us were heading to work.

The biggest difficulty facing English teams in India is not so much the heat, the dust, (or any other Merchant-Ivory film title), nor, even, the hostile crowds. It is the food. Or more specifically, the tendency of the food to induce an appearance of more Trots than a Tory rally during the Falklands war.

The Indian secret weapon, the “England-On-Tour Hotel Curry” has laid down many an England great. It is a little known fact that Geoffrey Boycott achieved his fastest “Run Rate” after eating one.

Ten years ago this June the great Gloucestershire wicket-keeper and artist Robert "Jack" Russell scored an heroic century at Lords to produce an unlikely England victory against India and win Man of the Match. He rarely ate much more (even in England) than Jaffa Cakes, tea, and large bowls of soup. His survival strategy when on tour in the subcontinent? He packed two suitcases. Full of Heinz Beans. (Or Beanz, as they now insist on calling them.) He ate nothing else, and was available to play every day.

Obviously Mr Flintoff is made of sterner stuff. He is the natural successor to sporting genius Paul Gascoigne in the affection of the nation. Loved by the public even when drunk, or overweight. Obviously Freddie is not scared of Indian food. The hotter the better. Vindaloo for preference.

He had inured his system with large doses of chillies in preparation for the challenge. And he had got the rest of the team to do likewise. Hence, as quoted on the BBC Web News

"We went in the dressing-room, had our lunch then played a bit of Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire," he said.

Not surprisingly...

"It got the lads going and we came out afterwards with a spring in our step."