NZC appoint Physiotherapist and Strength and Conditioning Coach

New Zealand Cricket today announced that Paul Close has been appointed Physiotherapist and Chris Donaldson has been named Strength and Conditioning Coach for the BLACKCAPS.

Close is a New Zealand physiotherapist who previously worked for the BCCI at India’s National Cricket Academy and had a stint with the Indian national team. Prior to that Close held the position of team physiotherapist for Bangladesh.

Donaldson, a former New Zealand sprinter, joins the BLACKCAPS support staff from Otago Cricket where he headed up the strength and conditioning programme. In recent years he has also worked as a strength and conditioning consultant for the New Zealand Winter Olympic team, Silver Ferns, Otago Rowing and travelled to Australia with the New Zealand Emerging Players cricket side.

Donaldon takes over from Bryan Stronach who will no longer travel with the team but take on a new role as coordinator of the national strength and conditioning programme while Close replaces Dayle Shackel who reverts back to his role of injury management and physiotherapy coordinator.

Commenting on the announcement BLACKCAPS Coach John Wright said: “We are fortunate to have his expertise of Paul Close who returns to New Zealand after gaining valuable experience from his time with the Indian and Bangladesh national teams.

“Chris’s high performance background is well known to New Zealanders and is a world class operator. His work with our New Zealand based trainer Bryan Stronach is important as we look to take our fitness to higher levels.”