NEW DELHI: Football, in the past few years has become an integral part of the warm-ups ahead of the net sessions in cricket. Be it the Indian national team or the franchises in the IPL, football can be seen keenly played by the players as a part of their warm-up routines.
On Tuesday, Royal Challengers Bangalore‘s strength and conditioning coach Shanker Basu revealed that football has been a tradition in the franchise for the last 6-7 years. Talking about the football session, Basu elaborated that on the inaugural day when the full squad comes in, RCB have a football match.
And this time on Day 1 of the training session, it was Virat Kohli‘s Hot Dogs vs AB de Villiers‘ Cool Cats.
With a slight tweak in the rules — no goalkeeper, but with a D — Basu explained that every player in the team has to come forward and participate with equal intensity.

Making the game a bit closer to the real one, a red card was shown to Dale Steyn during the match for foul play while Mohammad Siraj got a yellow card from the referee.
Basu also disclosed that he, as a strength and conditioning coach, hates football for cricketers as a warm-up because it is highly risky but allowed it once in a while even during his stint with the Indian national team.
RCB are currently focussing on their training ahead of the scheduled start of the 13th edition of the IPL from September 19.
The Virat Kohli-led franchise takes on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening fixture on September 21 in Dubai.