Paddy Upton on Gautam Gambhir: Former India Mental Conditioning Coach Had Once Described LSG Mentor as “Mentally Insecure”

Team India’s former mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton had once revealed a pretty bold observation on former India batter and present Lucknow Super Giants mentor in the IPL – Gautam Gambhir. As per Upton, Gambhir was not only pessimistic, but had also come across as mentally weak and insecure.

Gambhir has been in the limelight ever since he has shushed the M Chinnaswamy Stadium Crowd in Bengaluru, after LSG’s last ball victory against the home team RCB on April 10.

Former RCB skipper Virat Kohli, as if eagerly waiting to avenge for the humiliation the RCB fans had to face that day, was all pumped up during the reverse fixture last night in Lucknow. Kohli even overtly gave it back to Gambhir, by blowing a flying kiss at the Lucknow crowd after fall of a particular wicket.

With Kohli also indulging in a heated argument with LSG pacer Naveen-ul-Haq, the controversy ultimately involved a handful of players from either sides by the end of the match. The cameras however, remained focused on Kohli and Gambhir, as the two directly or otherwise kept venting out their anger and frustration while traversing across the field with different players.

While discussions on the issue are still continuing unabated across social media sites, the aforementioned observation made by Paddy Upton on Gautam Gambhir around four years ago, is doing quite some rounds.

Paddy Upton on Gautam Gambhir

Paddy Upton in his book titled ‘The Barefoot Coach’, had discussed the myth of mental toughness of elite sportsperson and how they react to situations.

The book had mentioned how Gambhir, despite the efforts put in by him and then team India head coach Gary Kirsten, would always remain “negative and pessimistic.” Upton had revealed how the Southpaw batter would take stress even after scoring a century, or would even get disappointed for not having been able to score a double century, despite scoring 150 runs for himself and the team.

“Using popular notion of mental toughness, he was one of the weakest and mentally the most insecure people I have worked with,” Upton would remark in his book.

He, however, added that despite that he was one of the determined and successful Test batters in the world, which he would yet again prove during the 2011 World Cup final.

“There is no sinful intention”: Gambhir on Upton’s observations

Gambhir later reacted to the aforementioned observations of him by Paddy Upton, and stated that he’s pretty much sure that the latter has no ill-intentions or anything against him while making those observations.

“There is no sinful intention in Upton’s views as he is a nice man, and in any case, my insecurities are well documented,” remarked Gambhir.

Gambhir further added that since he had wanted himself and the Indian team to be the best in the world, he was not satisfied even after scoring a ton, and agreed to whatever was mentioned in the book.

However, ever since this particular excerpt of his book had surfaced, Gambhir’s fans have criticized Upton for his observation, not caring for the fact that the latter had also praised the Southpaw batter for his contribution to Indian Cricket. He even had went on to add that Gambhir would make it into his team any given day a few years ago.

My book clearly states “@GautamGambhir was undoubtedly one of the best, most determined and successful Test batsmen in the world. Something he would prove, yet again, in the 2011 World Cup.” We ALL have Insecurities, even champions, and that’s OK. I’d pick GG in my team any day!

— Paddy Upton (@PaddyUpton1) May 3, 2019