When he had a cricket ball in his hands, the handsome Irfan Pathan could be relied upon to rescue the Indian cricket team from any difficult situation. His sharp inswingers to the right-handed batsmen caught the world’s top-notch cricketers by surprise. No one could fathom the Baroda born fast bowler’s deceptive bowling. Now when India faces another sort of crisis, the ex-cricketer and his brother Yusuf came to the country’s rescue once again.
A few weeks ago they had set up a base kitchen in their cricket academy to provide free homemade food to COVID affected people. Their efforts have been recognised by the Government of Gujarat. The government has accorded Irfan Pathan a well deserved felicitation to acknowledge the former cricketer’s efforts to help the victims of the deadly scourge.
Irfan humbly acknowledged the gesture of the Gujarat government on Twitter and posted: “Thank you A. Devvrat sir for felicitating me. Am a big admirer of your initiative and good work, one being the Corona Seva Yagna, which helped a lot of ppl in this pandemic. Thank you for being a wonderful host. Your words will inspire me to do a lot of work in future.”
However Irfan did not mention why his brother Yusuf was not felicitated by the Gujarat Government. Both the brothers had worked together to provide relief.
In his tweet, Irfan was referring to Acharya Devvrat who is the Governor of Gujarat. He is an educationist and naturopathic who has worked to ensure a pollution free environment and various other causes before he became the Governor of Gujarat.
Irfan Pathan’s Twitter followers and cricket fans were ecstatic at the development. “Bhai…Love you brother.. real heroes never retire..you and some others have proved it,” wrote one follower.
Incidentally, Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan had both tested positive for COVID in March this year. Both had quarantined themselves at home but being superbly fit athletes, both had recovered without much difficulty.
However the experience must have opened their eyes to the difficulties that people had to undergo and so they set up their kitchen to provide free food to all people who were suffering from the coronavirus. The brothers set up a base at their Cricket Academy of Pathans which had tied up with Kapil Dev and former Australian batsman and Captain Greg Chapell to impart guidance to the trainees.
It is reported that their initiative helped about 90,000 people in south Delhi and surrounding regions which bore the brunt of the harsh effects of COVID-19.