Asking Indian players to 'have s*x before match' the biggest regret of my professional career: Paddy Upton
Gary Kirsten who was the Indian coach at that time was deeply hurt by the controversy.
Paddy Upton, the former Indian mental conditioning coach recently launched his book ‘ The Barefoot Coach’. Upton has made some astounding remarks about the likes of Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian batsman, and S Sreesanth, who was banned after the IPL spot-fixing scandal in 2013 that brought an end to his career. In his book, Upton also mentioned the biggest error of his professional career.
Ahead of the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, he prepared a document for the Indian players where he shared with them information about the benefits of having s*x before a contest. In a chapter titled ‘Ego and my greatest professional error’, the 50-year-old put forth details about the controversial period of his professional career.
“Does s*x increase performance? Yes, it does. So go ahead and indulge. Okay, so that’s the popular answer, the one that everyone wants to hear. I know that if I want to have this article quoted widely, I should leave it at that,” Upton mentioned in his book.
It certainly wasn’t instructions or suggestions to players
Later, Upton, who is presently the head coach of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), remarked that he never asked the Indian players to and have s*x and it was just a piece of information.
“I wasn’t telling the players to do anything. I was sharing information. And what was taken out of context in the media was the jokes that I told them; I wasn’t suggesting players do that,” Upton was quoted as saying in an interview with Outlook.
“That was just the jokes and tongue-in-cheeks mistakes that I made. It certainly wasn’t instructions or suggestions to players. But, yes, I made the mistake, as I mentioned in the book, easily my biggest professional error,” he added.
Making more revelations about the matter, Paddy Upton said that Gary Kirsten, the World Cup-winning Indian coach, was deeply hurt by it. The Indian coach was made a laughing stock after the incident following which Upton apologized. The bonding between the two grew after the incident.
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