Paddy Upton, once part of Gary Kirsten headed Indian coaching staff as a mental conditioning coach for almost four years until the successful campaign of World Cup 2011, has unveiled how things were like when he along with his South African mate joined the national set-up here in 2008 after the controversial Greg Chappell era. 

"When we (he and Kirsten) were on our way to India in 2008 to take up our assignments, we chalked four goals, three of which were made public and one was kept as a secret," Upton was quoted as saying by TOI. 

"The first three were, make India the number one Test team, win the World Cup and get a feeling of bonding within the team. The last, which we kept to ourselves, was to make Indian cricketers better human beings. We knew that if we could do that, the first three could also be achieved."

Those were, of course, the days when the Indian dressing room was transitioning into a new phase after the resignation of infamous head coach Greg Chappell, in wake of country's disastrous first-round ouster from the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. 

So, with the intention of creating a strong bond with all the players that were around back then, Kirsten asked each player, especially those senior ones, what they expect from the new regime. 

"All of them were looking for a direction to go forward," Upton said. "Sachin Tendulkar perhaps articulated everyone's thought when he said 'I want you to be my friend'."

Now looking back, even Upton thinks while Chappell's knowledge of the game was outstanding, his methods with the Indian cricketers perhaps weren't ideal. And, having learnt their own lessons from that, he and Kirsten employed a more player-friendly approach. 

"We collected inputs from the players on what were the things they thought we should continue with or should do away with. We only organised these inputs and presented the players their own ideas. Immediately, we found acceptance," he concluded.