When Paddy Upton asked MS Dhoni-led Indian side to have sex before 2011 World Cup match

New Delhi, July 2: Former India mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton comes into the limelight every now and then for his startling revelations made in his book 'The Barefoot Coach'.

Upton - who worked as support staff for the 2011 World Cup-winning Indian Cricket Team - under the then coach Gary Kirsten has revealed in his book that he once asked the Indian cricketers to have sex before the World Cup match.

Upton went on to write that he even prepared a detailed note for the players on the benefits of sex. His suggestion, however, angered coach Kirsten and the former had to apologise for the same.

In his notes prepared during the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy, Upton mentioned, "Does having sex improve your performance? Yes, it grows."

Paddy Upton warns of mental illness due to extended stay in bio-bubble Paddy Upton warns of mental illness due to extended stay in bio-bubble

Upton made several startling revelations about the then-Indian dressing room in his book. The South African termed former India opener Gautam Gambhir as 'mentally the most insecure' but that didn't deter him from becoming one of India's most successful batsmen.

"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," ... Upton wrote.

Upton recalled how the left-handed opener would be in "agony" even after scoring a hundred and stressing more about the mistakes he might have made. Upton termed Gambhir as someone who was wired towards the lower end of the optimism/pessimism scale if 100 stands for "uber-optimistic" and 0 stood for pessimistic.

"Let's say his range was 20 to 40 with 30 being normal. When he scored 150, he would be disappointed in not scoring 200." Upton wrote that no matter what he and then coach Gary Kirsten did Gambhir was "negative and pessimistic."