Indian pacer S Sreesanth has stated that the former India mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton did not get the deserved respect by many of the players in the team during his stint with the Indian team but he used to enjoy conversing with him.
Notably, Upton was appointed mental conditioning and strategic leadership coach of the team in 2008. Under head coach and Gary Kirsten and Upton, India achieved unparalleled success as they not only attained the ICC top Test team ranking for the first time in 2009 but even went on to win the World Cup in 2011.
“Paddy Upton was not respected by many players in the team. He was not that big of a player. But I used to have good conversation with him,” Sreesanth said on Helo live on Friday. (via IANS)
Upton also enjoyed a stint with the Indian Premier League (IPL) side Rajasthan Royals. In his autobiography named ‘Barefoot Coach’ in which he mentioned an infamous incident that happened in the franchise dressing room back in 2013.
The 51-year-old wrote in his book that Sreesanth abused him and Rahul Dravid after being axed from the match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the sixth edition of the lucrative league.
However, the 37-year-old, who is gearing up to make a comeback to professional cricket after banned by the BCCI denied all such claims and stated that he never had any argument with Dravid.
“I could never disrespect a man like Rahul Dravid. He is the best captain. I was angry because I was not part of the squad during the CSK match. I asked the reason for the same.
“Yes, I wanted to play against CSK and wanted to win against them. But I don’t know the exact reason for keeping me out. In the Durban match, I bowled to MS Dhoni and took his wicket.
“After that match, I did not get any chance to play against CSK. Team management never gave me proper reason. I don’t hate Dhoni or CSK, but I go with colour. CSK jersey resembles the Australian team, that’s all,” he added