Thursday, April 30, 2009

I wanna go home: Irfaan Pathan to brother Yusuf

Johannesburg, Apr 29 (IANS) “I want to go home,” Irfaan Pathan of the Kings XI Punjab said to his brother Yusuf of the Rajasthan Royals as the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2 headed for the halfway mark.

Yusuf Pathan was reacting to a question about the rapport between the brothers playing in opposing teams and what they said to each other.

Yusuf Pathan was part of the team on the dais with Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne at a function hosted here for leading businessmen by sponsor Tata Communications Services.

Warne commented on the strategy to mobilise Yusuf against Irfaan because he knew his brother so well: “That was obviously the plan - that Yusuf would bowl to Irfan the other night and hopefully get him out but it didn’t work out that way.

“So when Irfan was bowling to Yusuf we were hoping that Yusuf would smash him all over the park.”

Warne was referring to the game at Centurion Tuesday evening when the Rajasthan Royals won their second game of the series against Delhi Daredevils.

“Last year, when we played, Yusuf was batting and Irfan dropped him at mid-on,” Warne said, adding in jest that he had done this “out of brotherly love”.

Reacting to a question of how they played as young siblings, Yusuf said: “Just as we are playing now. Even when we were young and playing in the streets, Yusuf and I would be hitting each other all over,” Irfan said.

“We both love cricket and our father has always been very supportive, coming to every match,”

Another member of the team, Dimitri Mascarenhas of England, was asked whether he thought that the traditional one-day internationals would disappear in the wake of the popularity of the Twenty20 format.

“I’m not sure if 50 overs will disappear altogether (although) I’m sure it will get played less because more people want to see Twenty20,” Mascarenhas maintained.

“Personally, I like Twenty20 because it is great fun, shorter, more exciting and players get involved a lot more,” he added.

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