Sex Improves Cricket Players’ Performance: Gary Kirsten Indian Cricket Coach

India’s cricketers got some unusual advice from their coach.

Gary Kirsten, a South African who coaches the Indian Cricket team and mental conditioning expert Paddy Upton reportedly told the Indian players that sex before a match increases athletic performance.

“Having sex increases testosterone levels, which causes an increase in strength, aggression and competitiveness,” Kirsten and Upton advised in a document distributed to the players, according to The Hindustan Times.

Besides trumpeting the positive side effects of sex, Kirsten and Upton also said that a lack of sex could diminish their athletic capacities by causing “a significant drop in testosterone levels in both males and females.”

The advice then reportedly goes on: “From a physiological (body) perspective having sex increases testosterone levels, which causes an increase in strength, energy, aggression and competitiveness. Conversely, not having sex for a few months causes a significant drop in testosterone level in both males and females with the corresponding passiveness and decrease in aggression.”

India’s players have such celebrity status that it is difficult enough to get access to an Indian hotel at the best of times; now security staff could be swamped by the groupies. Clearly the provisional conclusion must be that Yuvraj’s prodigious one-day success has nothing to do with a high backlit.

The section on sex begins with a quote from Tim Noakes, a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town, who suggests that casual sex, is not a problem, it is just drinking until 2am on the eve of a game, trying to pick someone up, that can disrupt performance.

Masturbation – or, as Kirsten politely puts it, “going solo” – is actively encouraged. As masturbation is against traditional Hindu thinking about sexual purity, Kirsten, a South African, may even be risking a backlash.
By now the document enters Claire Rayner territory: “If you want sex but do not have someone to share it with, one option is to go solo whilst imagining you have a partner or a few partners who are as beautiful as you wish to imagine. No pillow talk and no hugging required … Just roll over and go to sleep.”

The document also stresses the importance of being aggressive on the field, self-improvement and healthy eating.