Irfan Pathan Reveals How Javed Miandad's Comments Upset His Father During the 2004 Indo-Pak Series

Irfan Pathan will always remain an unfulfilled dream and an enigma who captured the imagination of a billion Indian fans when he made his debut for the national side during the 2003-04 Test series in Australia.

After the Australian series, the Indian team led by Sourav Ganguly went on a historic tour of Pakistan where Irfan once again showcased why he was being pipped as the next big thing in Indian cricket as he bamboozled the Pakistani batsmen with prodigious seam and swing.

During the series, Javed Miandad, the then Pakistan coach had made a controversial statement where he said that bowlers of the caliber of Irfan Pathan are found in every street of Pakistan.

Irfan Pathan recently revealed how Javed Miandad’s statements angered his father. Pathan also revealed that his father has come to Pakistan for the last game and had told him that he wanted to go to the Pakistani team dressing room.

“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’,” Pathan revealed on the Star Sports‘ show Cricket Connected.

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Irfan Pathan was one of the main wicket-takers for India throughout the series

Irfan’s father eventually went to the dressing room and as soon as Miandad saw his father, the former batsman stood up and categorically denied that he had made such a statement.

“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’,” Irfan Pathan added.

Pathan emerged as one of the bedrock of the Indian fast bowling unit during their historic triumph in both the ODI and Test series. In 3 matches, the southpaw claimed 8 wickets at an average of 17.88. He followed that up with another stupendous show in the Test matches where he claimed 12 wickets in three matches at an average of 25.93- the second-most across both teams.

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