Asking Indian players to have sex was a joke: Paddy Upton

Paddy Upton

Rajasthan Royals head coach and former India mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton in his book 'The Barefoot Coach' has said one of his biggest mistakes in his tenure with the Indian team was his sex dossier. He said that it was a joke which was blown out of proportion in the Indian media.

"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. 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," Upton said in an interview.

In the book, Upton also wrote in length about mental conditioning of sportsmen and also pointed at how former India opener Gautam Gambhir was riddled with insecurities, doubts and vulnerabilities.

Speaking to IANS on the way his image has been portrayed in the book, Gambhir said that while he enjoyed every session he had with the former India mental conditioning coach, Upton could have highlighted other facets to the batsman than just pointing at his desire to raise the performance bar.

"I don't see anything sinister with what Paddy wrote. He is a top guy and I see this as his personal opinion. He just missed two important things: firstly, he didn't state all the other facts and secondly, he failed to explain the perspective. Anyone would like to have a guy who is not satisfied with his current achievements. So in short, I wasn't satisfied with a 100 and wanted to have more," he had said.

Catch up on all the latest T20 news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates