That’s good. Playing cricket is the most important thing in my life and that’s what I’m doing. And being a lovable character, that’s an even better thing.

You do radiate joy. Is that something you’ve had since your childhood?

I’m like that since childhood. I’m a bit naughty. When I was very young, my brother and I, we were always up to lots of mischief. It’s the way I’ve been brought up.

You play tricks on batsmen as well. The ball looks like it’s coming in but then moves away.

Even I don’t know how that happens sometimes. but I try (laughs).

You remember Gilchrist in Sydney, when you took his wicket? It looked like it was swinging away but the ball nipped in and he was bowled. That was a high point for all of us.

Yeah, it felt really good. That was my second Test match on the Australian tour. For me it was a big thing just to be playing in Australia. The ball was reverse swinging really well. Sachin was giving me advice, saying ‘bowl around the wicket, don’t give him too much room’. I told him I wanted to try bowling over the wicket. So he said ‘OK. Go ahead’. It was the last ball, and I tried really hard and the ball landed in exactly the right place and I got the wicket.

Tell me about Baroda, where you grew up. Your father says that you used to help clean the place every day, and that it is this dedication that has brought you success today.

I grew up in the masjid for the first 18 years of my life. All my memories, experiences—good and bad—happened there. My mother’s and father’s struggles all took place there. My father used to work in two places, at Sahara Chemicals and at the masjid. He didn’t earn much of a salary.

What work did he do at Sahara Chemicals?

Ek chota sa kaam karte the. He used to work for about eight hours, then cycle home and then work for four-five hours at the masjid. So my brother and I used to try and help him out whenever we could. It wasn’t a lot, because we would have to go to school and then practise. But we tried to help.

When did you think about cricket?

When I was 10 years old, my brother and I used to play in the mohalla.

Because in middle class, lower middle class families. they just want their kids to study, study, study the whole time.

In the masjid, where I grew up, we weren’t allowed to play cricket. We would still try, but the other namazis would protest. Actually it’s not a good thing to play cricket in the masjid. So people would complain to my father. My father didn’t want us kids to go astray. So he spoke to my uncle, Ahmed mian, and he got us enrolled at the Baroda Sports Club. I was ten years old at the time.

But how did playing cricket become a passion?

Through observation. We would watch others play. Or if we went to a friend’s house where there was a match being shown on TV, we would watch there.

So there wasn’t a TV at home?

Not in the beginning, we got a TV later. TV’s weren’t allowed in the masjid at the time. The only reason we got it later was to allow us to watch the matches.

And fast bowling? In India everyone is afraid of fast bowling.

Honestly, I don’t really know how I became a fast bowler. But whenever I took the ball in my hand I always wanted to be a seam bowler. So that’s how it started.

You look up to Wasim Akram a lot. Did you watch his bowling and think that you wanted to do the same?

Whenever he was bowling, I would be glued to the television. He is a great bowler.

When did you first meet him?

When I was in Australia on my first tour. I met him in Adelaide.

Did he meet you? Or did you go to meet him?

Obviously I went to him, to talk to him. Ashish Nehra was a good friend of his. He knew that Wasim was at the tour to do commentary. So he gave me his room number, and I called and told Wasim bhai that I wanted to meet him. He said he would be going to the ground with Nehra, so I went along and we talked about bowling.

And what did he say before he saw your bowling?

He asked me to bowl straight away. Just as I was about to bowl he said, ‘you don’t bowl outswingers much, you only bowl the inswinger.’ I said ,‘yes, how do you know?’ He said it all comes with experience. But there’s one thing that I want to clarify and that is that people and the media have taken all this completely out of context. Wherever I go, people ask if I have been coached by Wasim Akram. To coach someone and to give them tips are two completely different things. Wasim Akram is definitely not my coach, but I will always be grateful to him for giving me some useful tips. And not just tips, more importantly, the fact that at our very first meeting, he was so good to me. He gave me a lot of confidence.

Some time back you went through a bit of a crisis. You didn’t get wickets sometimes, in India, in Pakistan. Even we at our age, when we go through a bad phase, it’s very difficult to handle. How do you handle it?

I try to handle it as best as I can, and thankfully until now I think I’ve done a decent job. Last year when Pakistan came to India, I was dropped for two matches. Then I came back. Then, when we went to Pakistan, in the first couple of matches, I wasn’t getting wickets. But I did my best to handle the situation. I’m still young.

But it’s tough. You are yet to be 22. And 100 crore people are chasing you with a speed gun.

I don’t think about all this. I know that my main goal is to take wickets (laughs). The way people are telling me that my speed has reduced, that my bowling is not fast enough. Tell me what all can Irfan Pathan do? Irfan Pathan must swing the ball, Irfan Pathan must deliver a breakthrough in the first two overs, Irfan Pathan must bat, Irfan Pathan must field well, Irfan Pathan will also be a fast bowler.

We need a team of Irfan Pathans. But that is the curse of an all-rounder.

That’s what I keep saying all the time, that right now I’m not an all-rounder. It takes time to become an all-rounder. Right now I’ve played only about two years of international cricket. I can only be an all-rounder once I’ve played about four-five years of international cricket. And about speed, when I played my first match at Adelaide, my speed was around 128-130 kmph. The maximum that it went up to when Australia was in India was 140 kmph. People don’t understand that pace comes with rhythm. And pace is not always the most important. You have to use both pace and swing correctly.

But what is more important? Is it important to have pace, or swing or swing and line and length, or to have the ability to vary?

You know that’s the great thing about cricket. I wish I could have everything. Pace, swing, line, length, everything. But everyone can’t have everything.

I had once asked Anil Kumble, who I think is one of the brightest, thinking cricketers. I find that when you talk with him he’s always thinking. And I can imagine that he’s doing that to batsmen all the time. I asked him, ‘what gets batsmen out?’ Is it spin? Is it line and length? Is it turn? Is it bounce? And you know what he said? One word. ‘Pressure’. Pressure gets batsmen out. And he gave me the example of the Multan Test of the last series in Pakistan. Pakistanis collapsed because of the pressure, because we had put up a big score. So tell me two things, how do you handle pressure, and how do you create pressure for the batsmen?

Pressure is created when we prevent batsmen from doing what they want to do. If it’s one-day cricket we try to limit the runs per over to four-five runs.

Or block their favourite stroke?

Yes. these are the ways we create pressure, to stem the run flow.

Give me an example of when you have done this?

Like in the Multan Test match. I bowled very economically, giving only about two runs per over. That’s pressure. Bowling in the right areas. If you are not getting wickets you should at least make sure that the runs are not coming from your end. Bowl maidens. Then at least this will frustrate the batsman and you will get wickets from the other end.

But when you bowl at great batsmen, then there are lot of mind games as well.

Yes definitely.

So give me some examples of ones that you have enjoyed.

On the Australia tour, while bowling at Gilchrist. He likes being given a lot of width outside the off stump. Sachin bhai told me to bowl inswingers from around the wicket as the ball was reverse swinging very well. This would block his favourite shot. Then the last ball of the over, I bowled over the wicket. He thought this would fall within his range of shots, but the ball fell in the right place and swung in and I got the wicket.

So how do you handle the pressure?

This is difficult.

You are 21 years old. But when you go out to play for India, people don’t think, ‘he’s only 21, he’s made a mistake.’ How do you handle that?

Before I started playing for India, I didn’t know that people’s expectations, attitudes would change so much. When I came back from Australia, people’s thinking changed completely. Every day 100-150 people would come to meet me at my house. Some seeking autographs, others asking me to attend functions. Before that life was completely different. For the first six-eight days, I could not understand this change. But then I spoke with my family, I spoke to Rahul bhai and Sachin bhai on how to handle the situation.

And what did they tell you?

Rahul told me to learn to say no. Because you can’t keep everyone happy. When I was dropped for the first time, I realised that in cricket you cannot stay at the top forever. There will always be ups and downs. So that realisation helped me deal with the pressure much better. But the best lesson I’ve learnt from my parents is that no matter what, however well I’m playing, I need to keep my feet on the ground.

But there’s also a downside to saying ‘no’. People will say, ‘this was our local boy and now his success has gotten to him’. Does this happen?

Yes it does and I feel bad. I don’t like saying no. At Press conferences journalists often ask for one to one interviews. But it’s not always possible. In any given day I have to train twice, go running, go to the gym, go for batting, bowling, fielding practice. I’ve got to make time for all this.

You know what, Andrew Leipus was on this show. And I was talking to him about various players. This was in January 2005 when he was going away. And Andrew talked about you very fondly. He said, ‘for my successor and any successor it will be a task to get him off the park’. He said, ‘that kid works much too hard.’

Actually, last year I used to overtrain. But now, as I’m getting more mature, I’m beginning to understand that however much I need to train, I need to allow myself the same period to recover. Now I balance the two better.

Coming back to the question of pace, there is something about Indian fast bowlers, when they come to the national level, suddenly they begin to lose pace. There are many theories. Is it that we are being overcoached? Coaches are telling us line-and-length. Imran Khan keeps telling me, ‘your country doesn’t realise it, your coaches don’t realise it, but pace is God-given. When somebody has pace don’t cut it’. Are our coaches telling our fast bowlers to cut pace, for accuracy, for line and length?

Since the time I started playing, my pace has been quite up and down. When I started I was around 120-130, which I’m bowling right now. In between when my rhythm was really good my pace picked up to around 140-142. So for me, what you said was right, some fast bowlers come in and lose their pace, for me it’s just been two-and-a-half years, I’m sure that when my rhythm comes back, I will be able to generate that kind of pace again.

Who do you enjoy playing the most? Which country?

Australia.

Why?

They are No 1. You always want to compete against them and they have a sense of arrogance on the field. They are really nice people off the field, but on the field they show their arrogance, which is all right, which is acceptable as well. That’s what I love. A challenge. If Hayden goes Ponting comes. They are all aggressive cricketers. And as long as there are aggressive shots, bowlers have a chance.

And Pakistan?

Australia and Pakistan. Australia comes No. 1, then Pakistan.

And do the Pakistanis target you sometimes as being a youngster, being a fast bowler? Javed Miandad said that Humari har galli mein Irfan Pathan hai.

To be honest, I don’t want to talk about past things, whatever has happened. My aim was to perform well there and that’s what I did.

Did you ask him about this?

No I did not.

He didn’t say anything to you, that it was a joke?

No. When we met we just spoke normally, we didn’t touch on that subject at all. And we shouldn’t have to. I’ve learnt in the last 6-8 months that if someone is saying something about you, that’s their point of view. You can’t change their thinking. You can only do your own work well.

Your batting, how and when did you start working on it seriously? When you were night watchman against Australia in Bangalore, you were quite defensive, you played for a long time with Rahul. So there are both sides to you, you can switch gears.

It’s been pretty good. When I was playing U-16 cricket for Baroda, from then on I’ve been batting at No 3. While playing the national level Vijay Merchant trophy at the U-16 level, I was also at No 3. So I’ve been used to batting. When I came into international cricket, I got a few opportunities and I performed well. You get confidence once you get a few good scores. John Wright helped me a lot. He was quite tough on me from the beginning. And I respect him a lot for that now.

Tough? How?

I haven’t told a lot of people this. One time, a photographer had taken a shot of me. I had posed, just for timepass with my sunglasses.I showed the photograph to John Wright for fun. I said, ‘Mate, I’m going to do modeling now, what do you think?’ he got really angry and said, ‘you’re not doing any modeling, if you start modeling I’m going to throw you out of the team.’ He was always tough. I was never lazy, but whatever I would do he would always push me to do more. When the series in Pakistan finished he said, ‘Mate, I’ve always been hard on you. Do you know why?’ I said, ‘I know. I don’t know about your view, but I think you want me to be a better cricketer, a better player than what I am right now and that’s why you are being hard on me.’ And I will always respect him for that.

The other senior players, Sachin, Rahul, what have they said to you?

Sachin bhai always stands at mid-off and mid-on. He has so much knowledge about bowling. He is a world-class batsman, but he has so much knowledge about bowling as well. And Rahul bhai has taught me to learn how to say ‘no’. If you don’t know how to say ‘no’ to people then you won’t be able to give enough time to cricket.

You are also a big role model now. The fact that you are a young Muslim, from very humble origins, all that makes you an even bigger role model. Does that ever make you conscious? The fact that you are a Muslim, from Gujarat?

No it doesn’t make me conscious. I don’t think about being a Muslim role model. Today, for every 10 Muslim friends I’ve got, I have 30 Hindu friends and five Christian friends.

And one Harbhajan as well.

Yes one paaji as well (laughs). I haven’t for a second thought this way, that I’m a role model for Muslims.

In the team do you all ever discuss the pressure that is on you? Every movement of yours is under the microscope.

Definitely. Even when it comes to sponsorships. I was at a Press conference today where someone was saying how cricket has become a business because of the number of ads cricketers are in. I’d only like to say to these people that we play good cricket, and we only do ads when we get a 10-15-day break. We use 3-4 days to do the shoots, then rest for a few days before we begin training again. When we play cricket we don’t think about these things. And about pressure, even in one or two matches if we don’t perform well, people say ‘this boy is not playing well’. We don’t encourage this kind of talk within the team. If someone is not doing so well, we try and boost their spirits. Even in Pakistan we were bowling on flat wickets the first two matches, I wasn’t getting wickets, people were talking about my lack of pace. But everyone, including Greg Chappell, and Ian were all very positive.

What’s the difference between Greg Chappell and John Wright?

It’s wrong to compare the two.

One is from Australia and the other from New Zealand.

That’s an old joke. They have different styles of working. It has been great working under both. Greg keeps inventing new methods of working. Another big plus is that they now have assistant coach in Ian Fraser. So there are more new ideas, more suggestions.