The Indian cricket fans were left surprised after Irfan Pathan announced his retirement on Saturday. The cricketer has now revealed a ‘nasty’ exchange of words he had with the former Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara.
Recently, talking in an interview Irfan Pathan recalled an incident that involved him and Kumar Sangakkara from an India vs Sri Lanka match in Delhi years ago. During the match, Irfan Pathan played a thrilling knock of 93 in that innings. However, while playing Irfan had an ugly exchange of words with the Sri Lankan star.
The sledging was so nasty that both the cricketers went on to talk about each other’s family. Sharing details about the sledging, Irfan Pathan said:
“I remember one of the stories with (Kumar) Sangakkara. We were playing in Delhi. I scored about 93 in the 2nd innings when (Virender) Sehwag got injured. I was sent up the order. At that time, Sangakkara knew the match was going away from them. (Muttiah) Muralitharan was bowling really well,”
He added:
“He was just trying to tell me something very nasty. He said something personal, I said something personal to him. I said something about his wife, he said something about my father and my mother. At that time, we were not happy with each other.”
Irfan Pathan also revealed about the incident that made them friends again. He said:
“After some time, we were playing in the same team for Kings XI Punjab. I remember, for a month, as soon as his wife used to come on the right, I used to go left”
He added:
“One day, Sangakkara came and said… ‘you remember this guy, he is the guy who said something about you’. I said sorry. And then Sangakkara explained, I said something first and then only he said something about you. It ended that way. There is no hard feeling and then we became friends,”
Irfan Pathan played 29 Tests, 120 ODIs and 24 T20Is for India, where he picked up a total of 301 international wickets, during his glorious career. He has contributed a lot to the Indian cricket.
