September 4, 2007


Difficult days are over, says Pathan
Irfan Pathan, who is out of the test and one-day team but got a new lease of life with a berth in the Twenty20 World Cup squad, expressed confidence of his getting back to lime light and said the difficult days are over.

Coming back to his old school, the MRF Pace Academy's Pachaiappa College, for a centre wicket practice session under Dennis Lille and T A Sekar after a successful 'A' tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya, the new ball bowler said: "I am here at the Academy to work on all aspects of my bowling and get the feel, there are no specifics, it is always good to be at MRF, just talking to Dennis Lille lifts my confidence, it is just a continuation of the good things I have been practicing for the last three months".

Asked to assess himself after being dropped from India's ongoing tour to England, Pathan said "after the tour of South Africa, all I got was a few Ranji games and then there was not much cricket, the A tour provided an opportunity to see how well I have progressed".

"The last time I was in Chennai, I worked hard on my action with T A Sekar and Lille. There were a few areas that required attention. I am happy with my action at the moment and confident of a good show in South Africa", he said.