The Indian cricket team will, for the first time, have a mental conditioning coach, with Paddy Upton set to join the support staff as recommended by new coach Gary Kirsten.
Kirsten, who will formally take over the high-profile job next March, was keen to have Upton in the coaching team and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to ratify his appointment in the Working Committee meeting in Mumbai on December 16.
“Kirsten wants to have Upton in the support staff. The matter will come up for discussion in the Working Committee meeting. His appointment would have to be ratified by the Working Committee,” a top BCCI source said on Thursday. Upton, a school friend of the new India coach, currently works as a mental conditioning coach at Kirsten’s academy in Cape Town.
He was a fitness trainer with the South African cricket team from 1994-98 and also worked with the Western Province Rugby team.
He then quit to concentrate on the psychological side of the game and became a mental conditioning coach.
Although India did not have a full-time mental conditioning coach in the past, the two previous foreign coaches -- John Wright and Greg Chappell -- had sought the services of specialist sports psychologists for brief stints during their tenure.
