Upton, Young join South Africa's coaching staff

Paddy Upton and Mike Young will join South Africa's new coaching staff as part-time consultants in the mental conditioning and fielding departments respectively. The pair's involvement in the set-up was confirmed when Gary Kirsten was appointed head coach on June 6.

"It is correct that both of them will be part of Gary's team," Gerald Majola, the CSA chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo. "Their names were part of Gary's presentation to us and when we appointed him, we also appointed the support staff he wanted."

Kirsten will be given a budget to determine how often he would like to use the duo, who he has worked with before. "Paddy will be joining part-time," Kirsten said, although he could not confirm when Upton's first session with the team will be or discuss details about how he would include Upton in the set-up.

Upton was Kirsten's assistant during his stint with India from 2008 until April this year. He is a long-time friend of Kirsten, has been his business partner and was the mental conditioning coach at Kirsten's academy in Cape Town. He was worked with the South African team before, as a fitness trainer from 1994 to 1998, before he switched to the mental aspect of the game in 1999.

Upton worked with closely with Jacques Kallis to help him overcome the death of his father. He replaces Henning Gericke, who worked with the South African rugby team during their 2007 World Cup triumph and travelled with the cricket team to the 2011 World Cup, as team psychologist.

Young, a former baseball players and manager, first became involved in cricket in 2000, when he was approached by Australia to assist them with fielding. He spent five years with the team, on a part-time basis, but his contract was not renewed in 2005. He worked with India for six weeks from December 2010 and has also been a consultant to the IPL franchise, Deccan Chargers. Young's appointment ends speculation that Jonty Rhodes, who was consultant for both Kenya and South Africa, would be roped in to assist with the national team's fielding.

In another personnel change, long-serving logistics manager, Goolam Rajah will retire after the Australia's tour to South Africa, which ends on November 21. Rajah will turn 65, the age of retirement in South Africa, in December. Rajah has worked for CSA for 20 years and said he would still "like to be involved in cricket because that's what I love doing."