Oz cricket coach Nielsen to take player preparation tips from New York Yankees
6 Jul 2008, 1152 Hrs

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Sydney, July 6 (ANI): Australian cricket team coach Tim Nielsen will visit the New York Yankees' facilities in New York after the one-day series against the West Indies, in the hope of acquiring an insight into how baseball players are physically and psychologically prepared to take on the competition from time to time.

Nielsen and Australia's American-born fielding coach Mike Young will arrive in New York ahead of Major League Baseball's annual All-Star Game, which will be played at Yankee Stadium, and inspect the team's practice facilities thereafter.

"Baseball to me is one of the closest family members to cricket. It's a similar sort of skill set as far as hitting and catching and fielding the ball goes. I suppose my idea is to see how they deal with high profile players, how they deal with the preparation of players when they play so often," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Nielsen, as saying.

Stating that the Australian cricket team has a busy season ahead, he said that at least six Australian players were the most marketable players, and therefore, he had to make sure that "they're working well and are looked after".

Nielsen envisaged that his visit to New York would provide most benefit to the Centre of Excellence, which is looking for new, innovative training methods. (ANI)