Of triumph and tears

Brothers Yusuf and Irfan Pathan provide an insider's view of India's last two World Cup journeys

Irfan Pathan was busy posing for a series of selfies with fans. Standing at a corner of the Srikantadatta Narasimha Raja Wadiyar Stadium in Mysuru, Yusuf Pathan looked on.
“He is always in demand,” said Yusuf.

A cynic may try to find, “Oh! Why I am not in demand” tone in that. But it was a more self-evasive comment from Yusuf, even glad that he was left alone in his space.
But on April 2, 2011, destiny dragged this bashful man to face the world with a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck. Roaring in delight. Sharing the spotlight with some of the biggest names in Indian cricket. How did he feel that day?

Yusuf just shrugged. “Woh khali meri jeet nahi tha. Poora team ki, poora mulk ka jeet tha (It wasn’t my victory. It was our team’s and nation’s victory). He shrunk into the background.  “It doesn’t feel good to talk about myself.”

Let it be. But does he remember that cracker of an innings Virender Sehwag played at Dhaka in the World Cup opener? Yusuf discarded his reticence, gradually pacing back to those heady days.

“Viru bhai made a century in the first game against Bangladesh. That win doubled our confidence. His innings was quite amazing and the way he played put us all in the right spirit. It set the tone and made us understand that we should play confident and aggressive cricket to win the tournament. It was also great that other senior players like Zaheer Khan, Yuvi, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh came good for the team whenever needed. It was a complete team effort,” Yusuf told Deccan Herald.

The build up to the 2011 World Cup would have been bizarre for a man who loves to stay away from the crowd. Cricket’s flagship event was happening in India, a country with the most fervent set of fans. Naturally, the hype was big. Each and every movement of the Indian team was chronicled, predictions and analysis filled the living rooms. India transformed into a colourful festival ground.

Anything less than a Cup triumph would have resulted in tarred houses and broken windows. Irfan would tell us about it later.

Yusuf said the team stayed inside a bubble during the World Cup. “We were projected as favourites because we were playing in conditions familiar to us. But we felt no pressure and viewed it as an advantage rather. We were enjoying playing in home conditions, and MS Dhoni ensured that the entire team stayed relaxed throughout the tournament.

“He was telling us to keep our cool and take it match by match. Even when we were put under pressure by England (the tied match at Bengaluru) and South Africa (the defeat at Nagpur), the entire unit remained calm,” he explained.

India’s sternest test on the field came when they met three-time champions Australia in the quarterfinals, and Yusuf remembered the ‘Yuvi show’ that helped India win. “Once Yuvraj is in that mood, the opponents do not stand much chance,” he chuckled.

The edge and the political undertones of the 80s and 90s might not be there, but a match between India and Pakistan is still one of the eagerly anticipated clashes in the cricketing world. In 2011, the semifinal took place in Mohali, and suddenly the clock ticked back to the days when a match was much more than a mere neighbourly affair.

Political leaders, fans, and common men came through Wagah border. Some wanted to see cricket. Some wanted to reconnect with relatives who were left behind in 1947. It wasn’t just a cricket match. Yusuf too felt it.

“A match between India and Pakistan has always been very fascinating. We have a great record against them as Pakistan had not beaten us in the World Cup. So, we were all eager to keep the good run going at Mohali. I think lot of important people like political leaders from both the countries too were present then. It was a charged up atmosphere. We felt that we were playing the final itself. But we managed to win. Harbhajan bowled a good spell, and Sachin paaji came up with a good knock.”

Sachin Tendulkar was playing in his sixth World Cup then, and it was the last chance for him to add one piece of missing glory. There wasn’t much talk about individual glory in the dressing room, though.

“We used to watch Sachin paaji on TV in other World Cups. Here I was playing with him, sharing a dressing room, speaking to him…all on cricket’s greatest stage. It was unbelievable. But he hardly talked about himself, though he wanted to win a World Cup badly.

“Then came that six by Dhoni. We were world champions after 28 years. Once we won the World Cup at Wankhede, we all surrounded him (Tendulkar) and then carried him on our shoulders around the venue. People were cheering us and taking photographs. He was almost in tears due to happiness, and celebrating like a child. I will never forget those scenes. I was part of the 2007 World T20 triumph too. But this was special because it happened at home, in front of our fans.”

So, where was Irfan — who played seven matches in India’s World T20 triumph in 2007 —  when India celebrated their biggest win in three decades? “Watching it on TV.” He too was a part of India’s 50-over World Cup campaign once. The disastrous one in 2007 in the West Indies, and he nudged his thoughts back.

“Memories from that tournament were not happy ones because we were in that for only a short period. Our slide started with that defeat against Bangladesh in the first game, and we could not get our act right from thereon. The game was in Trinidad and we had good support there. But we couldn’t win.

“We had to spend two more days there. Those were the longest two days. Most of the team members didn’t get out of their rooms even for their food. There was a broken feeling within the camp. Then there were reports of stoning players’ houses back in India,” he said.

We will not have any additions to those Pathan tales from the 2015 edition of the World Cup. Irfan, perhaps, would have liked to lead India’s charge against Pakistan in Adelaide, where he started as an international cricketer in 2004.

“It’s not about Pathans. It’s about India retaining the World Cup.” Only Yusuf could have been so phlegmatic about it.