Former India fast bowler S Sreesanth, whose life ban was scrapped by the Supreme Court recently, on Sunday talked about many things of his life – from his hatred for Chennai Super Kings and the rumoured rift with Paddy Upton to how he had spent n the jail. However, he has faced many controversies and one of them was a spat with Rajasthan Royals’ coach Paddy Upton. In his autobiography, Upton had written that Sreesanth abused him, for not choosing him in a match against CSK.
While talking to the Indian Express, S Sreesanth has denied all the blames on him.
“Mr Upton, touch your heart and touch your kid’s heads, did I ever abuse you either during India team or in IPL? I want to ask the legend Rahul Dravid, someone whom I respect and love, when did I ever fight with him? When did I abuse with him the way Upton said in his book,” he said.
“I requested Upton many times to let me play that game — only because of my history with CSK and because I wanted to defeat them. He made it out differently that I wanted to play as if for fixing. Everybody knows how much I hate CSK, I don’t have to say. People might say because of MS Dhoni or N Srinivasan sir or whatever but that’s not the truth; I just hate the yellow colour. I hated Australia for the same reason. Most importantly, I have done extremely well against CSK that’s why I wanted to play,” Sreesanth further added.
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However, the pacer shared that the allegations on him were much worse than the torture he had to face in the jail.
“That allegation that I abused the two was the most disappointing. That was bigger than torture by police. That thing still hurts. Other players would talk about Upton, “Yeh kaun hai bey, Kirsten sab kuch karte hain (who is this guy, Kirsten does everything).’ Have I ever behaved like that with him? I really hope your book sells more because you seem so desperate,” he added.
He further shared about the time he spent at the jail. He was alleged in spot-fixing during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2013. He was imprisoned in Tihar jail for nearly a month along with Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan.
“There was this guy – murderer and rapist – who used to abuse me a lot. Every other word was an abuse. I was scared of him. I soon realised, I had to do something about it. I started to speak to him and I remember after a few days he said, ‘Tere me to dum nahi, teri to fatt gayi… Saath rehna, tero ko karne ke liye bohot log hai. (You are scared. Stay with me. Lots of people want to target you)’,” Sreesanth told.
Sreesanth has played in 27 Tests, 53 ODIs and 10 T20 Internationals for India where he has 169 wickets in his name. He revealed that there were times when he would break down while he was in jail.
“I would break down for no reason. I used to get seizures for 6-7 weeks. I couldn’t sleep as in Tihar they had that bulb that they wouldn’t switch off,” Sreesanth concluded..
