Just like Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, Sonny Baker, England’s brightest young fast-bowling talent, swears by the health benefits of bone broth. So who started consuming it first?
“That’s a great question,” he tells The i Paper. “Unfortunately, I don’t know Erling Haaland personally so I can’t comment on that. But I’ve been having it a while.”
Baker turned to bone broth after a succession of back fractures as a teenager. After publicly speaking about its benefits last year, he has since landed a sponsorship deal with a manufacturer.
“Honestly, it’s been a game-changer,” he says. “Making it yourself I cannot describe how much of a pain it is. It is just a nightmare.”
It is not the only sponsorship he has secured recently, with the rather unusual link-up with a local butcher included as part of his deal when he moved from Somerset to Hampshire ahead of the 2025 season.
“In my original contract discussion, I went ‘you’re trying to offer me as much as possible for as little cost to you. So let’s just talk about the fringe benefits first rather than about x amount of money.’”
Living on site at the Utilita Bowl, Baker asked Hampshire director of cricket Giles White if food from the caterers who supplied the ground and its on-site hotel could be included in his rent.
“He said ‘come on Sonny, I can’t quite do that but what I can do is make an introduction with a local butcher who supplies the ground and the hotel’. He did and here we go.”
Yet the best deal he has had recently is the one-year England central contract he was awarded last November.
“You think they probably wouldn’t have given me this if they weren’t interested long term,” he says. “So that’s a good sign.”
As if you had not worked it out by now, Baker, speaking at an event for the Chance to Shine charity at a primary school in Oxford, is cheeky, charismatic and uber-engaging.
The 23-year-old is also honest about the prospect of a Test debut this summer, with his 14 County Championship wickets at 26.21 this season catapulting him into contention.
“I’m not going to shy away from the fact that a Test debut is an absolute dream and I think Test cricket is the absolute pinnacle,” he says.
“But how about you worry about next week mate? I’m just going to keep performing for Hampshire and learning from [South Africa’s] Kyle Abbott because he’s played Test cricket and knows what it takes.”
Abbott has been a huge resource at Hampshire for Baker, who as well as being clocked at 92 miles per hour this summer is honing his skills as a swing bowler.
The youngster, who counts another South African in Dale Steyn as his model of the perfect fast bowler, says: “Having Kyle at mid-off is just invaluable – he’s a massive, massive asset for us and he’s significantly improved the younger bowlers, especially me.”
Sharing a dressing-room with James Anderson, England’s all-time leading wicket-taker, at Manchester Originals during last year’s Hundred was also a great education for Baker.
“It was phenomenal,” he says. “He really was awesome with me.
“I was nervous going in because he’s an absolute legend of the game. I was concerned he would already have a pre-conceived idea I was going to absolutely spray him with questions which, to be honest, I was. So fair enough.
“But the way I tried to do it was, how about I just try to make him like me first? And then naturally get chats with him where we’ll talk about cricket.
“We were talking about all sorts of different stuff – swing, different balls, field settings, things he’d found in specific games of bowling at guys we were bowling at. It was really, really useful and credit to him, he was phenomenal and massive for my learning.”
And how much of what Anderson passed on went into Baker’s famed notebook – where he keeps all his information on opposition batters and what he calls “golden nuggets” of “niche information”.
“I wouldn’t have said I was walking around with my notebook following Jimmy but there’d be little things he’d said I’d quickly type down in my notes page on my phone and then write it in my notebook later,” he says.
Despite only having played 11 first-class games, Baker has already experienced international cricket – debuting for England in both white-ball formats at the end of last summer.
His ODI bow against South Africa at Headingley saw him concede 76 runs in seven overs after England had been bowled out for 131, while his T20 debut against Ireland at Malahide was also painful, with his four overs going for 52.
Baker has written off the first of those given the low total England were defending. But he admits the second happened because he was not being true to himself as a bowler.
“I ended up creating the second bad debut by worrying about the first,” he says.
“So if I do end up making a Test debut at some stage, I’m not going to be worried about that. If people think you have the potential to play at that level they must be right. If you keep going you’ll eventually come good.
“I hope to have many better days in an England shirt than I have so far. I’m not in any urgent rush but I’m also very ambitious. I’ll let you take that how you want to.”
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He also believes those white-ball appearances will smooth the transition to Test cricket.
“I’ve met the guys now,” he says. “I’ve had that awkward ‘hello mate, how are you?’
“You get a feel for everyone’s character and you don’t have that feeling – I’m worried about the game and worried about things socially.
“The social thing is no longer a stress. All I have to worry about is the cricket now. That’s a massively positive thing.”
Sonny Baker was speaking at John Henry Newman Academy, where children’s charity Chance to Shine marked its eight millionth participant since launching in 2005. It now works in around one in four state primary schools across England and Wales each year, introducing children to the game.