The Australian team's beer-swilling image has changed over the past few years and in the Sydney Morning Herald, Jamie Pandaram meets one man who has played a part in that shift, the team's strength and conditioning coach Stuart Karppinen.

As the relationship between athletes and alcohol permeates social focus, team traditions associated with booze are coming under greater scrutiny than ever. Karppinen, who is completing his PhD in ''neuromuscular fatigue and physiological demands of international cricket'', says there will be times routine is scrapped for celebration - such as Australia's upset victory in South Africa earlier this year - but as a general rule he views alcohol as a detriment that could one day be swiped from sporting culture altogether.