Sunny Saturday afternoons playing cricket wouldn't be the same without the weak orange cordial served up halfway through an innings.

But it should be different.

You see, while squash is a great way to get fluids and sugar into your body it's certainly not going to give you the edge.

Getting the edge

In the last over of a tense game, can you rely on yourself to draw on the energy needed to win the match? Lots of club players lack this capacity and it has cost more than one game over the years.

Playing regularly combined with good diet and a good fitness training programme is essential to combating this, but you improve it further with the use of humble caffeine.

"What special nutritional needs do cricket players have?" was a question I asked back in August.

Since I wrote that, I've been looking more into optimum sport nutrition and it seems some amendments are needed to the original plan.

Following Mike Boyle's advice that endurance and recovery are both driven by nutrition, not training here are the new tips:

Is the traditional breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner right for cricketers? It certainly hasn't done any harm to generations of players over hundreds of years.

While this way of eating has done its bit to fuel players adequately, we don't want adequate, we want optimum.

Sports nutrition has found a way to push your performance even further. It's called nutrient timing.

"I think all sports evolve at some point where technique and skill level are almost equal and wins and losses are decided purely from a strength and conditioning angle."

Food and cricket performance goes hand in hand. That's a principle Mike Boyle pressed home to me in our recent discussion.

Studies have shown that eating and drinking right can make a significant difference to how well you train and how much endurance you have on the pitch.

What does 'eating right' look like?

This is part 2 of the "Cricket Fitness for Older Players" series. To go to part 1 click here.

It's no revelation to say that the older you get the more weight you put on. When international sports performers hit 26 or so fitness coaches start to build in weight control strategies.

Yes, 26.

While you don't need to be in the same peak condition as elite players, giving in to love handles isn't good for your cricket or your health so what you eat becomes more important as you get older.

Cricket is a long game with various requirements: explosive power, speed, agility, strength and recovery speed. All of these factors are heavily influenced by what you eat.

Food is fuel and if you fuel your body right it will keep you at the optimum level for playing cricket.

While you don't need special supplements or diets to maintain good cricket nutrition, you do need to know what works best. Here I have collected together all my tips on what to eat to make you a better player.

It's a horrible feeling when you have been in the field for a long time: Your legs get heavy and all you want to do is get off the pitch, get in the shower and have a pint or a cuppa.

Usually this is the time you need to be most switched on.

So it pays to use a couple of tricks to keep the fatigue away in the dying overs.

Cricketers, more than any sportsman, enjoy their food. After all, the game is built around lunch and tea. So it's no surprise that most players will be carrying a little extra weight after the excesses of Christmas.

Don't panic, you can lose those pounds before the summer arrives.