'I said something about his wife': Irfan Pathan recalls how he and Kumar Sangakkara fired personal salvos at one another

Since announcing his retirement, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has spoken about various things.

From regretting not playing more for India to recalling special moment's from his career, the player has spoken it all.

He also recalled a sledging incident which took place between him and Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara.

He said the incident took place in Delhi during a Test match and both the players fired personal salvos at one another that, they were not too happy with each other.

“I remember one of the stories with (Kumar) Sangakkara. We were playing in Delhi. I scored about 93 in the 2nd innings when (Virender) Sehwag got injured. I was sent up the order. At that time, Sangakkara knew the match was going away from them. (Muttiah) Muralitharan was bowling really well. He was just trying to tell me something very nasty. He said something personal, I said something personal to him. I said something about his wife, he said something about my father and my mother. At that time, we were not happy with each other,” Pathan told Indian cricket’s official broadcaster while announcing his retirement.

Pathan featured in 29 Tests (1105 runs and 100 wickets), 120 ODIs (1544 runs and 173 wickets) and 24 T20 Internationals (172 runs and 28 wickets). 

The now 35-year-old burst onto the scenes after taking 9 for 16 against Bangladesh in a U-19 match in Pakistan. 

He was soon taken into the senior squad for the Australia tour in 2002.