Paddy Upton appointed Sydney Thunder’s coach for Big Bash League

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Jul3, 2014

Sydney Thunders turned to Paddy Upton in order to freshen up their strategies ahead of the Big Bash league (BBL). His progressive coaching style impressed the players and thus he feels he has been assigned to coach the Thunders.

According to Fox Sports, the South African signed a two-year deal and replaced Chandika Hathurusinghe. He previously was associated with the South African and the Indian cricket team. He is also the coach of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Upton has worked with Jacques Kallis, who is Thunder’s new signing, from the mid 90’s and looking forward to build a rapport with the Thunder’s captain, Mike Hussey. Upton was quoted, “Mike Hussey and I are very much in agreement with our coaching approach.” He added, “I hope to create a learning environment where players are talking to each other and taking responsibility for their game and the team’s game. I encourage players to express themselves and be free of failure, be excited about the opportunity of succeeding, which is a different mindset.”

He further believes that although the Thunders have the experiences of Kallis and Hussey but the lesser known players would steal the show. This was the same strategy that he followed for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL and has already proven successful. He said, “At the Rajasthan Royals we are the cheapest team with the least caps and superstars, so we’ve really relied on an environment where the younger, less experienced players can really flourish. That’s something that at the Royals we’ve been very successful with. He further added, “It’s exciting to be able to work with a team that’s got so much to win and so much to play for. It’s about harnessing what the younger, less experienced players have got to offer because their contributions are going to be the key to the Thunder’s success as Mike Hussey’s.”