England bring back Manchester City psychologist for T20 World Cup
Written by I Dig SportsDavid Young, who was previously with England from 2016 to 2020, has worked with City during an unprecedented period of success, with the club recently becoming the first team to win four Premier League titles in a row. He has been brought back as a consultant on a short-term basis ahead of next month's World Cup, with City's approval.
"He's previously been with the team and he's already been a great ally in messages back to me, making sure my messages are clear," Mott, England's white-ball coach, said. "It's always good to have someone who's a little bit removed from the squad to make sure you're landing your messages He's still doing other roles but we've got him for this series, and the start of the World Cup as well."
England's management are trying to learn from the mistakes they made at last year's 50-over World Cup, when they were knocked out at the group stage and won three of their nine games - two of which came after their elimination. Mott described the tournament as "death by a thousand cuts" and said: "When you've had the kick in the pants like we've had, you can't just go 'business as usual'. You have to redefine how you go as a team.
"As a group, we've made a commitment to be a bit more open in and around our training sessions, to help each other out a bit more. In India, all of us were guilty of being a bit insular, and trying to problem-solve ourselves. We've made a commitment to open up and be a bit more vulnerable as a group so that we're helping each other."
Mott has been watching the IPL from afar and said that England could learn from Royal Challengers Bengaluru's winning streak to qualify for the play-offs. "The way they had nothing to lose and came out and played a different brand of cricket - could we have done that earlier? Maybe, yes. On reflection, we didn't react as we should have after the start."
"Family and friends got more upset about it than I did," he said. "Initially, of course you take it a bit personally but he's there to have an opinion All I'll say is that only the people within the dressing-room can fully understand what's going on. Once you leave the dressing-room, you might hear titbits of stuff, but you don't really know how the team's operating."
"We feel like it's time to get the mojo back and go out and really express ourselves as a team. I think T20, as opposed to ODI, is so much clearer in the way the players can approach it. We've seen in the IPL, you have to go out and really take the game on from the start. Most teams are going to go that way, so it's going to be an exciting World Cup."