Former mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton writes in his newly-released book ‘The Barefoot Coach’ that Gautam Gambhir was “mentally the most insecure”. Gambhir, who has turned politician and competing from the East Delhi constituency, told PTI that he is not hurt by what Paddy Upton wrote in his book about him. He said, “There is no sinful intention in Upton’s views as he is a nice man and in any case his insecurities are well documented”.
Upton wrote in his book,
“I did some of my best and least effective mental conditioning work with Gautam Gambhir, the International Test Cricketer of the Year’ in 2009. I worked with him up until that time but I had little to do with him being named world’s best cricketer.”
He further said, “Using popular notion of mental toughness, he was one of the weakest and mentally most insecure people I have worked with. He was undoubtedly one of the best and most determined and successful Test batsmen in the world. Something he would prove yet again in 2011 World Cup final.”
Gambhir responded to this saying, “I wanted myself and Indian team to be the best in the world. That’s why I was not satisfied even after scoring 100 as it has been mentioned in Paddy’s book. I see nothing wrong there. As a driven individual, I have tried to raise the bar for myself alone.”
Paddy also wrote about Mahendra Singh Dhoni calling him “incredible emotional control” who is totally contrasted with Virat Kohli.
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