England Coaches Unhappy With Fitness / Nutrition

Despite the recent big Women's Ashes win, it seems that England's coaching staff are not happy with the players regarding their fitness and nutrition.

Sources close to the England camp say that these issues extend from top to bottom - and although one player in particular is the object of singular exasperation, both senior and junior members of the team have come in for criticism for being unable to complete the kind of fitness drills that the Australian players take in their stride.

Poor nutrition is being singled out, not only as a cause of lack of cardiovascular fitness, but it is also being held liable for injuries sustained on the field.

While the Australian team are issued with a smart-phone app, upon which they are required to log everything they consume, the England players eat and drink what they like. They are advised, but this advice is often ignored, leading to problems at both ends of the scale - while some players are clearly overweight, others are allegedly underweight.

To be fair to the players, I think this is partly an inevitable side-effect of their borderline-semi-professional status. The support-network which underpins the "professional athlete" side of their lives is very part-time; and the fact that many of the younger players live together on fairly low incomes, reenforces the kind of "permastudent" lifestyle which is frankly not conducive to long-term health and fitness much after the age of 21.

Nevertheless, there is also an argument that if the England team want to be fully professional athletes, they had better start acting like them first!