Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan’s retirement once again triggered the Greg Chappell debate. A big section of Indian cricket fans believes that Chappel tinkered with Irfan Pathan’s game and this led to his downfall at the international level. Irfan Pathan, who took 301 wickets and scored 2,821 runs in 173 internationals, made a scintillating start to his career but lost his pace and sharpness after Greg Chappell’s stint with India as head coach.
However, Irfan Pathan has categorically denied these allegations and said that they are just “cover-up“. Pathan said in an interview that his performance and swing declined as per the fans because his role in the team was changed and he was given a new job of the first change bowler.
“All these discussions…people talking about Greg Chappell they are just covering up. (The discussion that) Irfan was not interested, it was coming from somewhere. All the aura they made that Irfan lost his swing, people need to understand, that you are not going to get the same kind of swing that you get in 10 overs. I was still getting the swing.”
“People talk about my performance, but my job was different. I was given the job to contain because I was bowling first change. I had been told this is your job. I remember getting dropped after winning the game in Sri Lanka in 2008, who gets dropped after winning the game for the country without any reason?”
Irfan Pathan also spoke about his back injury that was a big challenge for the fast bowler, back in 2009-10.
“In 2009-2010, I had a back injury, and I was struggling to go to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, in Bangalore to check my back. I used to go through the scan, which is not good for your body, but I used to go through that and have different kinds of scans to actually know what is exactly happening with my back.”
QUICK READ: Pathan Talks About The Ugly Exchange Of Words With Kumar Sangakkara
