England VS Pakistan: History of England and the problems of food poisoning in the subcontinent

"Several players and staff members, including England captain Ben Stokes, are feeling unwell and have been advised to stay at the hotel to rest up," said the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB). 

There were rumours that it was a bout of food poisoning – which led to a few jokes online, given its well-known England travelled to Pakistan with a personal chef. 

However, the issue isn't related to the food the players have been served – and indeed, even the chef has picked up the virus, according to Joe Root, who addressed the media on the eve of the Test. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tou Masla chef ka nahee low <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/immunity?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#immunity</a> ka hai. Wishing speedy recovery to all players <a href="https://twitter.com/ECB_cricket?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ECB_cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/LOsf6thuB8">https://t.co/LOsf6thuB8</a></p>&mdash; Mohammad Hafeez (@MHafeez22) <a href="https://twitter.com/MHafeez22/status/1597899594230530048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"I think it's just one of those things that we've unfortunately picked up as a group - we've tried to do absolutely everything," Root said.

"We've prepared really well for this game and sometimes life throws things at you but we'll do everything we can to be right tomorrow and be right and ready to go."

But this isn't the first time such illnesses have recently hit England. Indeed, as recently as the 2021 series in India, this issue hit the English camp. 

Ahead of the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, the England camp got hit with diarrhoea just before the game. 

The players eventually played through this but lost quite a bit of weight in the aftermath. 

A similar thing happened even this year when England were touring Pakistan for their mammoth seven-match T20I series. 

Moeen Ali – of Pakistani origin – had openly criticized the food quality available at specific venues, and several players had minor illnesses because of it. 

Indeed, the quality of food present on the tour prompted England to bring in their chef for this particular tour in the first place. 

But perhaps the most famous instance of this happening was back in 1993, when England players Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting were taken ill – supposedly after sharing a bowl of Chinese prawns on the eve of the second Test against India. 

The story caught fire in England, even if it wasn't true. Robin Smith was another player who fell ill at the same time and ate his meal in his hotel room. The best part? He didn't have the prawns. 

That tour was cursed for England in many ways, but the sickness due to food was a constant theme. Indeed, England's scorer on tour fell ill too – which meant that, somewhat hilariously - Dermot Reeve's mother became the team's official scorer for the remainder of the tour. 

So England in Pakistan and food or stomach-related issues are nothing new. Most thought that it was a thing of the past, given England players travel to the subcontinent a lot more these days – but not! 

Graham Gooch, a former England captain, recalls being struck down by stomach illness the night before the Chennai test in 1993.

“When Mike Gatting came down to join us, the number of dishes increased so quickly that when the hotel management arrived to try and identify the offending dish, "they could only narrow it down to one of the twenty-eight that Gatt had ordered," according to the joke from journalist Martin Johnson of The Independent.

“I then gave it to Alec Stewart and went to bed. While I was drifting in and out of dreamy sleep, the television was showing the cricket in my room. Fortunately, it was only food poisoning, and it went away in 72 hours. Unfortunately, by that point, we had already lost by an innings.”