BCCI recently roped in the services of mental conditioning expert Paddy Upton to help the Indian players prepare for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2022 down under in October.
In a time when the mental health of cricketers is becoming crucial in a jam-packed international calendar, Paddy Upton's erudite would be a really useful resource, believes India head coach Rahul Dravid.
Upton, who worked with Team India from 2008 to 2011, is back at Dravid's request and will help the Indian players be in the best mental shape ahead of the T20 World Cup.
“With so much cricket being played mental health side of cricket is very important and having a resource like him (Upton) will really be helpful to the group,” Dravid told BCCI.Tv.
Upton's experience with the Indian cricket setup, according to the India head coach’s opinion, will be beneficial.
“Travelling as players in international cricket, we do understand the mental side of the game and we are lucky to get someone like Paddy on board because he has that experience of being with Indian team during 2011 World Cup and even a little before that,” he said.
“Most importantly he (Upton) is familiar with most Indian players having worked with them at IPL level or in Indian team.”
“He is familiar with our culture and how the Indian team functions. (It) seemed like a really good fit for us, to tap into his knowledge as we look to build the team for the World Cup,” he added.
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Upton stated that the intent will be to create an environment, where players can be themselves and thrive.
“Everybody has a natural motivational flow and part of my role is to help individuals find that natural motivation flow and for that, we need to set up an environment that allows people to be themselves and to flourish,” Upton said.
He shared an anecdote to support his point.
“If I give a simple analogy is to grow beautiful flowers, the gardener needs to create a fertile land. As coaches, our role is to create a fertile environment which helps our players to naturally grow and reach their fullest potential on and off the field,” he stated.
The 53-year-old asserted that performances will come easily when a team is mentally strong.
“If team is in great space performances are naturally going to flow. What we need to do is remove obstacles in those performances, individually and from team perspectives,”
“Mental side of the game hasn’t changed a lot but what has changed is Covid experience and lot of players have been on road lot of the times, so there is an extra element of trying to get each individual player as well as team as a whole in best space possible.
Talking about Dravid, Paddy shared that the legendary Indian batter has always had a hunger to learn not just about cricket but also about life.
“He (Dravid) has always been someone with such a hunger to learn, not just around game of cricket because he is a professor when it comes to game of cricket but about life and everything beyond cricket.
“We have been in conversation about life, cricket, spirituality since 1996. We picked up again when we joined the Indian team in 2008 with Gary Kirsten.
“So I have been in these conversations for a long time and super exciting to have those conversations every day and hopefully it goes towards setting up this Indian team for an unbelievable T20 World Cup,” he signed off.
(PTI AND BCCI.tv INPUTS)
