Yusuf Pathan CLAIMS he ‘Felt Same Tension’ Before 2007 India-Pakistan Final After Winning LS Polls as TMC Candidate

Kolkata: Former India cricketer Yusuf Pathan was among the 15 Muslim candidates who won the Lok Sabha polls. Yusuf won the Behrampore seat with a Trinamool Congress (TMC) ticket. The ex-cricketer dethroned Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary. The 41-year-old cricketer has now claimed that he felt the same tension he did when he played the India versus Pakistan 2007 T20 WC final.
“I had felt the same tension before the 2007 India-Pakistan World T20 final in South Africa. That helped and I knew that I could handle it,” Pathan, the cricketer turned TMC politician, told The Indian Express.
“Nervousness on a big day is not new. But as time passes, things start getting normal. It is like when I walk out to bat on debut… the more you stay at the crease, the more things get normal. As counting went along, things started easing. I was confident that people would vote for me, the rallies I did, the love I got was amazing,” Pathan added.
Yusuf accumulated 4,76,913 votes while Adhir Chowdhury earned 4,03,651 votes.
The 41-year-old is a first-timer when it comes to politics, his life so far has been defined by cricket where he earned the reputation of being a powerful and clean striker of the ball. Yusuf’s switch to politics was, therefore, a surprise call, or in hindsight, a masterstroke by chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
In a constituency which has over 66 per cent Muslim population, Mamata chose to pit Yusuf against Adhir Ranjan.