Former India mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton in his book ‘The Barefoot Coach’ revealed that S Sreesanth once abused Rahul Dravid in public. Upton, who has been the head coach of Rajasthan Royals since 2013 has also thrown some light at Sreesanth’s spot-fixing scandal.
Upton in his book revealed that Sreesanth was dropped for a game against Mumbai Indians after which he abused me and the then captain of the team Rahul Dravid. Sreesanth’s outburst was not normal as there were another 13 players who were not playing the game but they did not reacted the way he did.
Paddy Upton said that 24 hours before they were arrested Sreesanth was sacked and sent home because of his poor behaviour. Paddy in his book writes, “The reason for Sreesanth’s repeated poor behaviour, which amongst other things included blurting out in front of the team that Rahul Dravid (captain) and I (Upton) could go and f**k ourselves in response for dropping him, now made sense.”
As per a report in The Indian Express, Sreesanth denied the incident ever took place and called Upton a big liar. “He is such a big liar. I never said anything like that,” he said in a Whatsapp message.
Upton also revealed that he saw signs of dubious nexus between Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan. All three were later arrested for spot-fixing and banned for life by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Sreesanth’s life ban was revoked by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The court also asked the board to decide the fresh quantum of punishment.
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