Javed Miandad's comments upset my father during Pakistan tour in 2003-04: Irfan Pathan

Javed Miandad never minced his words. However, there have been many instances where people haven’t liked what he said. Recently, in Star Sports ‘Cricket Connected’ show, former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan talked about an incident that really annoyed his father.

During India’s tour of Pakistan in 2003-04, Irfan Pathan was bursting out on the scene and had caused some tensions in the Pakistan dressing room. At the time, Javed Miandad was the head coach of the Pakistan cricket team. In a press conference, the former captain and then coach had said that bowlers like Irfan Pathan could be found on every street of Pakistan. The left-arm pacer revealed that his father had read these comments and wanted to meet Miandad in person.

The time Irfan Pathan’s father got annoyed with Maindad’s comments

While recalling the incident, Irfan said, “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 said that when Miandad saw his father he himself said that he hasn’t said anything about him. And Irfan’s father told him that he wanted to meet him because he was once a wonderful player. “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’,” Pathan revealed the story during the Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.

The tour to Pakistan was Irfan’s second series after making his debut in Australia. Pathan had a great tour in Pakistan with the ball, one of the reasons why his name was discussed during that series. In three ODIs, he picked up eight wickets while in the three Tests, he picked up 12 wickets.

Under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, India won the ODI series 3-2 and followed it up with a 2-1 win in the Test series as well. It was the first time India was touring their neighbours after a long time. Recalling some memories from that tour, Irfan Pathan said, “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.”