It took one Australian tour in 2003-04 to make a curly-haired teenager a household name. Once he began swinging the ball both ways, comparisons with Wasim Akram followed. A few impressive knocks later, he was destined to be the next Kapil Dev. The fall for Irfan Pathan though, has been as quick as his climb was.
Having lost his swing and a considerable amount of pace, Pathan is no longer the blue-eyed boy of the selection committee. Despite scoring 397 runs at an average of 49.62 and scalping 22 wickets in the 2009-10 Ranji season, followed by a five-wicket haul in the Duleep Trophy final, Pathan didn’t make the cut for the Zimbabwean tour or the India A side — touring England — as a pool of fresh faces was preferred by the selectors.
Working on errors
The disappointment is clear, but Pathan does his best to conceal it. “I really don’t know what to say. I was hopeful. Every cricketer thinks of where he is going wrong and tries to work on his errors. I’m playing well but need to do better. I’m still hoping to make a comeback,” Pathan says, while speaking to The Indian Express.
While cricket pundits attempt to deconstruct where the downfall began, Pathan isn’t sure himself. Could it have been because of the drop in pace? “But I have never been a 140-plus bowler,” he says.
“I don’t know what people are expecting from me. Do they want to see me to bowl at 140-plus and take no wickets? Or do they want to see me swing my way to wickets and give away fewer runs?” he asks, adding, “I was a bowler who could take wickets and perform whenever the team required.”
The long season has finally come to an end after the IPL, and Pathan has planned his next three months in advance.
“At the moment I’m working on my body, hitting the gym. These three months will be crucial as I will work on my pace. It all depends on how I maintain my body,” he says.
The 25-year-old has more plans in place but is reluctant to reveal them, though he is tugging at the leash to return into the senior side as it’s been a year since he was last part of the Indian team. Pathan is aware of his statistics this season, and rattles them off like a student giving his oral exams.
“It all depends on how my next season goes, I’m ready to do well again. Ready for more hard work, ready to learn everyday, ready to come back.”
Ukraine’s Yanukovich fails in move to strengthen powers
(Reuters) – Allies of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich failed on Saturday in a first attempt to push through changes to the constitution that could significantly boost his political powers in the ex-Soviet republic.
Parliament launched a debate on Friday on a proposal by Yanukovich’s Regions Party that would allow for a referendum to decide whether curbs on presidential powers, agreed in 2004, should be lifted.
Political commentators said allies of Yanukovich, who was elected last February after a bitter political campaign against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, sought particularly to boost presidential authority over the government.
At the moment, the president can propose candidates only for foreign and defense ministers — and even they have to be accepted by parliament.
If the curbs were lifted, commentators said Yanukovich would effectively rule in a presidential system similar to that of many other former Soviet states, including Russia, with the right to name government ministers.
But when parliament met on Saturday in exceptional session several parties voiced opposition to agreeing on a referendum now. They included the Communists and the Lytvyn bloc which are part of the majority underpinning Yanukovich’s government.
Further debate on proposal was put off until September.
The present limits on presidential powers were imposed in 2004 when the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko came to power after the “Orange Revolution” street demonstrations, and partly contributed to his downfall.
Yushchenko’s five years in power were marked by constant confrontation with parliament and with Tymoshenko, his prime minister, and he crashed to a humiliating first-round defeat when he sought re-election this year.
Since he came to power with the financial backing of key business figures, Yanukovich has gradually tightened his grip in the country, appointed close allies to key positions in the power structure and tilted foreign policy back toward Ukraine’s old Soviet master, Russia.
But he said last month that the limits on the power of the presidency had produced a crisis of authority and he urged a change in the constitution.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Maria Golovnina)