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Eat right, stay fit

Mohammed Azharuddin on fitness and food

FRUGAL EATER Mohammed Azharuddin

At 43, Mohammed Azharuddin can give youngsters a great complex. Endowed with an enviably good height, he has a perfect physique for a sportsperson.

He says, "I take two things in life seriously— fitness and food. When I was young, I'd eat everything, from junk food to oily and spicy ones and that too, in good quantity. Later, I realised I was wrong. You must know what your body wants. Nobody will gain or lose weight if his/her food and exercise routines are organised. Being a sportsperson, for example, we do require carbohydrates, but we can't have excess of it." Azhar always prefers a light lunch. Taking about the secret of his being the fittest man in the team during his captaincy, he says, "I had set high standards of fitness for myself. I always wanted to compete with the younger boys in the team. I would see to it that I was able to run as much, and as fast as they did. I cut down on oily food, and stopped eating red meat. But I continued taking chicken for its protein value." Azhar has learnt the lesson of fitness as much from his own experiences as from Faiyaaz Ali Khan, a trainer at Azhar's gym. . "He was my greatest strength during by my dark period."

Cheerful temperament

A healthy body, he agrees, gives you a cheerful temperament. A temperament that helped him sail through as captain and face the world stoically during his dark days. He adds, "I never had any ego hassles as captain." During his tenure, there were three former captains in the team — Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Dilip Vengsarkar. Azhar says, "I would always look up to them. Whenever I was in need of advice, I had three captains to fall back on."

RANA SIDDIQUI

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