Mumbai, (Samajweekly) Former India allrounder Irfan Pathan has revealed his father got upset once at Pakistani legend Javed Miandad for his comments on the fast bowler.
During the India tour of Pakistan in 2003-04, Miandad, who was the coach of Pakistan then, had said that bowlers like Pathan can be found on any street in Pakistan. The remark left Irfan’s father displeased and he wanted to meet Miandad in the dressing room after the Test series was over.
“I remember Javed Miandad saying something like bowlers like Pathan are there in every street of Pakistan. My father, I remember, reading that news, he didn’t like it at all. I remember in the last game as well, he came to Pakistan, he came to me and said ‘I want to go to the dressing room of Pakistan and meet Javed Miandad’ and I said ‘I don’t want you to go there’.”
“As soon as Miandad saw my father, he stood up and said, ‘no I didn’t say anything about your son. My father had a smirk on his face and said, ‘I didn’t come here to say anything to you. I wanted to meet you as you were a wonderful player’,” said Irfan Pathan on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.
The Sourav Ganguly-led side won the Tests 2-1 and the ODIs 3-2. Talking about his experience of touring Pakistan, Irfan said he was really pleased with the hospitality of the neighbours. “The food, the cricket the dressing room stories, Sachin paaji asking me to sing a song after winning the series and small little things and the whole team was playing like a unit, it was wonderful,” Irfan added.
Former India pacer Ashish Nehra also spoke about the series. “Those six weeks he was hitting sixes left right and centre there was no doubt about it. Virender Sehwag triple hundred, Rahul Dravid double hundred, Irfan Pathan performance, all that is there but to me off the field, Pakistan, the nation as a whole and Lakshmipathy Balaji in the dressing room,” said Nehra.
“I still remember Javed Miandad inviting all of us to his house and that food in his house was amazing, I still remember it,” Nehra added.
