Upton set to join support staff

Paddy Upton, the South African mental-conditioning coach, is almost certain to join the Indian team support staff. Gary Kirsten, India's new coach, was keen to have Upton on board and he is likely to double up as a trainer as well.

"We just need to sort out the terms and conditions," a BCCI official told Cricinfo. "But he is likely to be appointed in the next few days. Only the formalities remain."

Upton has accepted the amendments which the board made to his proposal. What's left now is for the board to send him the final copy of the agreement.

Upton, currently a mental conditioning coach at Kirsten's academy in Cape Town, was South Africa's bio-kineticist and fitness trainer in the mid to late 90's. He was also 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 services of specialist sports psychologists for brief stints during their tenure.

While Wright had turned to eminent Australian sports psychologist Sandy Gordon to have interactions with the players, Chappell had relied on West Indian Rudy Webster to motivate the players.