Indian crickets: Backroom boys

Gary Kirsten falls somewhere in between those two camps,but leans towards the Allardyce school of thinking. Soon after he was appointed in March 2007,he brought with him Paddy Upton,who previously served as South African crickets fitness trainer and had since moved on to mental conditioning and worked one-on-one with players like Jacques Kallis and Kirsten himself.

Kirsten consulted Upton rather late in his playing careerbefore his 101st and final Test match in 2003. But it was enough to show him the importance of understanding how the mind works.

Kirsten and Upton sat down and analysed the lack of footwork that had caused Kirstens last three dismissals,and came to the conclusion that he was subconsciously scared of the short ball. I learned that it was the same thing that had got me out in all three innings. In fact,it was the same thing I struggled with my entire career,but never admitted to anyone,not even to myself. I got out because deep down,I was scared of the short ball, Kirsten said at the time. It was only in my 101st Test match,batting under possibly the most stressful conditions I had encountered,that I was able to understand my emotions while batting and do something about them.

In 2006,the two became business partners and started a consultancy called Performance Zone in Cape Town.

Strategy to suit players

Upton joined the Indian cricket team as mental conditioning coach in December 2007. Apart from him,the Indian team was also treated,from time to time,to the motivational presence of Mike Horn,the South African explorer whose intrepid feats include negotiating the Amazon for six months and circling the equator,alone and without the aid of motorised transport.

Indias World Cup victory and the teams ascent to the number one ranking in Test cricket can be seen as a victory for specialist backroom personnel,and the often intangible benefits they bring. For most of his stint,Kirsten had four local assistants: Ramji Srinivasan (physical trainer),CKM Dhananjai (video analyst),Ramesh Mane (masseur) and Nitin Patel (physiotherapist),were an important part of a set-up where nothing was left to chance. Just before the World Cup,yoga instructor Manoj Kumar joined the team since the Indian players wanted alternative fitness regimes.

Not all backrooms work well with all teams,though. The key to the success of Indias support staff was the fact that they never imposed anything on the players,or on each other.

I think the thing that made the journey so enjoyable and obviously successful was that nobody was trying to be king of the heap, says Eric Simons,Indias bowling coach,who joined the team two years after Kirsten and Upton. The players were important and we never worked for personal glory.

Strategies were designed to suit the players. Two hours into their first session with the team,a three-day camp before the home series against South Africa in March 2008,Kirsten and Upton tore up their pre-planned strategy map,and consulted the players instead.

Gary presented the thoughts that we had come up with before coming here about how to move forward. And two hours later,we sat down to have lunch and realised that it didnt land. So we had to change our tactic two hours into our three-year contract, says Upton. We went back to the players and said,Ok,you have a 50 per cent win ratio over the last eight months. What are the things that youre doing that are working and youre enjoying? What is it thats working for you in this environment? And we had a brainstorming session and went away and organised that into whats working on the field and off it in terms of practice and strategy. We grouped the stuff that was working and presented it back to the players,saying,How about this for a strategy? And really,what we were doing was giving the players a strategy that they were already enjoying.

Gaining the trust of the players was the next step,and that happened over time. That first three-day camp we had,I was amazed at how open the guys were. And Tendulkar was one of the people who was completely open. I invited people to tell me about some incident in their life that had a significant impact and the players shared their stories very openly and I was amazed,only to realise a little bit further down the line,that they shared more out of politeness than because of a genuine openness, says Upton. But as the relationships built,so did the trust. Someone like Harbhajan Singh is very quick to trust and very quick to open himself up while someone like M S Dhoni takes a lot longer. We allowed those natural human interactions to unfold at a comfortable and natural speed. We didnt try and force anything.

Preparing for the finals

To prepare the side for an event such as the World Cup,Upton told the players to seek out pressure and embrace it in all the matches leading up to the big event. Well before the World Cup even began,the players were talking about situations they might face in the final.

We used the language,when we play the final in Mumbai,whenever we spoke about pressure over the last year, Upton says. So when we arrived there,we had already been talking about it,planning for it and it was already in our day-to-day language that when we play,we will be in the highest pressure situation. The fact that we were two-down when we lost Sachin,it was a high-pressure situation,but it didnt catch us by surprise because we knew at some stage,that this was going to happen when we play the final in Mumbai.

In the group stages,however,the emphasis was on treating the matches in a low-key manner. We werent really worried if we won or lost one or two games or we finished second or third, says Upton. We werent worried if we were to even finish fourth,because we knew it was a long period of sustained pressure,particularly in India with all the expectation.

To ensure that players didnt feel the anxiety of fans and the media,they were cut off from newspapers and television. Whats important is your analysis of your own game along with your fellow players and your coach. There is no value in watching some person sitting in a studio analysing you,someone who is not in the gym or in the nets. We said to the players,you work it out,how much TV you want to see and how much emphasis you want to place on what is being said, he says.

How Yuvraj turned a corner

Among the players who went through a major transformation during Uptons tenure was Yuvraj Singh,who went from getting a contract demotion to ending the World Cup as Man of the Tournament. He was going through a fairly tough time. And it was his decision to say,okay,I can either walk away from the game or I can do something about it. And all credit to him,he decided to work on his game,on his fitness and on himself as a person. My role in that was to help a guy and accompany him on that journey of discovery. So on this journey,my role as a mental conditioning coach was to walk them,ask them questions,in a way like a navigator, says Upton.

Munaf Patel was another success story. To me,he was one of the greatest joys to watch over the last three years. For the first two years,he was in and out. Munaf,by his own admission,didnt have really good energy. He wasnt an energetic guy,and was quite lethargic. And about a year ago,he did a 180-degree turn. In his own words,he decided to change his attitude. Over the last year,I dont think I have seen any player in the team smile as much as Munaf and be a positive contributor of energy. If a guy dropped a catch,or if there was a guy struggling in the nets,Munaf would be the first guy to be there to encourage him, says Upton.

With the mental and emotional demands that the crowded international schedule places on players,more teams might follow Indias example and appoint specialists like Upton.

What is going to happen with full schedules is that you will lose players through illness,through injury and through loss of form and mental fatigue. Thats going to happen anyway, says Upton. I just hope that going into the future in world cricket,there are these support groups put in place. And the players feel comfortable to go and seek out that kind of support. Its all well to say that they get paid well and they get treated well. But they are human beings. A lot of times,people from the outside look at them as superstars and have massive expectations from them. But they are just like you and me and have the same fears.

Team Support

Paddy Upton,Mental conditioning coach

Before joining the Indian team,Upton was with South Africa’s national cricket and Western Cape Province rugby squad. Played a big role in preparing the players for the high pressure games. A patient listener,thats been his big strength.

Eric Simons,Bowling coach

Played 23 ODIs in the 1990s before he became South Africas bowling coach. His Indian stint started in 2010. Very strong tactically,Simons sat with bowlers to plot the fall of rival batsmen. Despite injuries to key bowlers before and during the World Cup,he used the resources available to him wisely.

Nitin Patel,Physiotherapist

Following the stints of Andrew Leipus,John Gloster,Paul Close and Adrian Le Roux,Team India finally got a homegrown physiotherapist in Vadodaras Nitin Patel. Having worked closely with Sachin and Zaheer during his stint with the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team,Patel had an insiders approach to treating them.

Ramesh,Masseur

Masseur of the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team in 2003-04,he was drafted into the Indian set-up during their famous tour of Pakistan in 2004. Affectionately called Mane kaka,he is a father figure in the team. Hes also the one who arranges mithai for them on hectic tours to other countries.

Ramji Srinivasan,Physical trainer

Srinivasan rose to prominence during his stint at the MRF Pace Foundation,where he helped Sachin Tendulkar recover from a shoulder injury. Ramji who joined Team India in 2010,also runs a popular health club in Chennai and is Mumbai Indians physical trainer in the IPL.

CKM Dhananjai,Video analyst

For his indepth analysis of the game,Dhananjai,who joined Team India as video analyst around the same time as MS Dhoni took over as skipper,is credited with charting out its recent success on the international stage. Hes part of the Sports Mechanics firm that procures and processes data to provide coaches.

Manoj Kumar,Yoga instructor

The newest recruit to the teams support staff had earlier upset the BCCI for being part of the dressing room despite being only a personal yoga instructor to Zaheer. He had to leave the camp but was reinstated later as the teams yoga instructor. Kumar,who practises dynamic yoga,helps players recover with stretching.