Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan responded after an old video of him commenting on ex-captain MS Dhoni, involving hookah, resurfaced online. Pathan suggested the clip was misrepresented and questioned the motive behind sharing it after nearly a decade.
The 40-year-old hinted that the controversy was fueled either by fan wars or a PR campaign. On Wednesday (September 3), he posted on X:
“Half decade old video surfacing NOW with a twisted context to the Statement. Fan war? PR lobby?”
https://twitter.com/irfanpathan/status/1963222054561353805?s=46
The comments followed a day after an old video went viral, where Pathan appeared to take a subtle dig at Dhoni over his exclusion from Team India’s playing XI during the 2008 Australia series. In the clip (via The Times of India), the all-rounder said:
“I don’t have a habit of setting up hookah in someone’s room or talking about this. Everyone knows. Sometimes, if you don’t speak about it, it’s better. A cricketer’s job is to perform on the field, and that is what I used to focus on.”
“During the 2008 Australia series, Mahi bhai’s statement came out that I wasn’t bowling well. I felt I had bowled well, so I asked him. He clarified there was nothing like that and everything was going as planned. After such a reply, you just focus on your game, because asking repeatedly can hurt your self-respect,” he added.
https://twitter.com/rafalekohli/status/1962534288349630854?s=46
“Dhoni Was Captain When I Was Dropped From ODIs In 2009 NZ Tour” – Irfan Pathan
Irfan Pathan recently revealed that he was left out of the playing XI during the 2009 New Zealand tour when MS Dhoni was captain. Speaking to Lallantop (via NDTV), he said:
“In New Zealand, I was benched for the first match, the second match, and the third match as well. The fourth match was a draw because of rain. I wasn’t in the final match either. Then I asked Gary sir, why I had been dropped? If there was something I needed to improve, he could tell me, but I wanted to know the reason I was left out.”
“Kirsten told me some things were not in his hands. I knew the playing XI was the captain’s call. Dhoni was captain then, and every skipper has the right to run the team his way,” he added.
Pathan defended his point, recalling his match-winning knock against Sri Lanka before the New Zealand tour. He said:
“It was back in 2009, when we were in New Zealand. Before that, my brother (Yusuf Pathan) and I had won matches in Sri Lanka. The situation in which we had pulled a win – if it had been anyone else in our place, they wouldn’t have been dropped for a year. In that match against Sri Lanka, we needed 60 runs from just 27-28 balls, and we won it from there.”
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