Follow UsOver the course of the past 20 or years or so in sports, few individuals have donned as many hats as Paddy Upton has.
The South African is someone who served as head coach for both Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals in the IPL — and also for several other T20 franchises across the world — has also worked as a Mental Conditioning and Strategic Leadership Coach for the Indian Men’s Cricket Team from 2008 to 2011. He also had a second stint with the Indian team as a Mental Conditioning coach in 2022.
Cut to 2025, Upton is working with the Indian hockey team as a Mental Conditioning coach, and is currently aiding the side in its Asia Cup 2025 campaign (Hockey).
In a recent interview, the 26-year-old, who has worked with both the Indian cricket and Indian hockey teams, spoke about the difference in the fitness levels of the two sides.
“From a fitness perspective, if the Indian cricket team trained with the hockey team, I think most wouldn’t manage halfway through the session,” Upton told RevSportz in an interview.
“By the end, you’d probably still have 18 hockey players going strong, with maybe only Virat keeping up with them. That’s how fit this team is.”
Earlier, in an interview with India Today, Upton had said that the hockey team had ‘18 Virat Kohli's’ in their group.
“These guys are 18 Virat Kohli's from a fitness perspective, where in the cricket team there's only 1 Virat Kohli from a fitness perspective," Upton had said.
Earlier this month, the BCCI introduced the ‘Bronco Test’ for the Men’s Cricket Team. The Bronco Test is a gruelling fitness drill used in rugby and hockey. Players run shuttles of 20, 40 and 60 metres, five times each, without pause, covering 1.2 km in total. The test is designed to measure aerobic endurance, speed, and recovery, and is considered far tougher than the Yo-Yo Test.