Former Indian cricketer, Irfan Pathan, who had a roaring career when was known for his swing bowling and handy, batting recently shared a lesson on incident from his plane days. He recalled an ugly experience from his early days with a senior teammate during one of India’s series against Sri Lanka or Pakistan.
Irrfan shared that when he was promoted to bat at number three, a senior cricketer was not quite happy about it. The player felt that he deserved the spot and confronted Irfan physically. He recalls not saying anything in that argument. Irfan did not specify the name of the senior player. He told TheLallantop,
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“There is no point in disrespecting someone by taking names. There is no permanent friendship or rivalry in cricket,”
The senior player expressed his anger and said, “Yeh kyu mere se upar jaa raha hai batting karne?’ (Why is he batting above me?)”
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Irfan also confirmed that the player called his jersey, in frustration, he said, “yes. This was a senior player.”
The host asked if any of the big names such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid or Sourav Ganguly were the senior player that Pathan was referring to. The all-rounder cricketer clarified that it was none of these players, and said, “It wasn’t Dada. In fact, Dada was someone who sacrificed his own position for others.”
