India’s mental conditioning coach, Paddy Upton has named two of the most professional cricketers he has come across, one of which is head coach Rahul Dravid. Upton worked closely with Dravid in the past when he was with the Indian cricket team during his first stint and later with the IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL, but their story goes back a long way, 1996 to be precise, when Dravid had made his debut for Team India. 

Upton, who was the fitness trainer of the South African team back then, recalled his first meeting with Rahul Dravid and how he was bowled over by his professionalism. During a recent chat with cricket.com, Paddy Upton said, “I was the fitness trainer with the South African cricket team from 1996 and Rahul Dravid had just made it into the international team.”

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He further elaborated, “During his first India tour of South Africa, he picked up the phone to me as the fitness trainer of the South African cricket team and said – and there was no such thing as a fitness trainer in world cricket at that time; South Africa was the first – and Rahul phoned me in my hotel room and said ‘I would very much like to buy you a cup of coffee. I’ve got a few questions for you. And the first time when I met a young Dravid, he had so many really good questions about getting fit, managing his body, taking himself to a new level of professionalism.”

Paddy Upton then narrated an interesting anecdote relating to New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who years later reminded him of Dravid. Williamson made his Test Kiwi’s tour of India in 2010, where he scored a century on debut in the first of the three games. After the match got over, Upton recalled a stunning sight and narrated an incident similar to what he had experienced with Dravid in 1996. 

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Paddy Upton reminisced, “And some years later, when I was with the Indian team and Kane Williamson came on his first tour, I watched him talking to Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar after a Test match, and that evening he phoned me in my room and asked can I have a cup of coffee with you tomorrow, and like Dravid, a young Kane Williamson came to me with some really good questions about how can he take his game forward.”