A clip from an old interview with Irfan Pathan has recently gone viral, taking the internet by storm and reigniting a long-dormant debate surrounding his abrupt exit from the Indian cricket team under MS Dhoni‘s captaincy.
Irfan Pathan and MS Dhoni: The viral video and the ‘hookah’ allegation
The video, which first surfaced in 2020, features Pathan speaking candidly about his career and alluding to a certain ‘inner circle’ culture within the team. In the viral video, Pathan reflects on the unexpected end to his international career in 2012, a mere few years after he was hailed as India’s next great all-rounder.
Without explicitly naming Dhoni, Pathan makes a pointed remark that was widely interpreted as a subtle jab at the former captain and the team’s dynamics. He stated, “I don’t have a habit of setting up hookah in someone’s room or talking about this. Everyone knows. Sometimes if you don’t speak about it, it’s better. A cricketer’s job is to perform on the field and that is what I used to focus on,”
– Be MS Dhoni
– Remove players who don’t set hookah for him
– Remove selectors , before they remove him
– control BCCI
– Win icc trophies
(Absolutely chad in my book)pic.twitter.com/uvg2cgIoP2— Sivapithecus (@Sivapithecus_10) September 2, 2025
This single comment caused a frenzy on social media. Fans and media outlets quickly interpreted it as a stinging insinuation that players who were part of an off-field social circle or who had a closer personal rapport with the captain were given preferential treatment in team selection. The storm was further fueled by separate, older comments from former Australian cricketer George Bailey, who had once mentioned that Dhoni enjoyed smoking hookah and had an ‘open-door policy’ for younger players in his room.
“He likes smoking a bit of the sheesha or the hookah. So, he quite often would set that up in his room, and it was very much open-door policy. You would go in and quite often find a lot of younger players there,” Bailey was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Irfan’s recent exchange and a cheeky ‘hookah’ response to a fan
The controversy recently came to a head on X (formerly Twitter) when Irfan Pathan wished Mohammed Shami a happy birthday. A fan, seizing the opportunity presented by the resurfaced video and the ongoing meme-fest, left a direct and viral comment: “Pathan bhai, owh hookay ka kya hua?” (Brother Pathan, what happened to that hookah?),”.
Irfan Pathan, instead of ignoring or getting defensive, chose to address the fan’s query head-on with a masterful and witty response. He turned a potentially awkward situation into a moment of lighthearted camaraderie, showing he was fully aware of the viral nature of the comment and the rumors. His cheeky and definitive reply, which immediately went viral, was: “Mein aur @msdhoni sath Beth kar pienge” (I and @msdhoni will sit and smoke together),”
Mein or @msdhoni sath Beth kar pienge;)
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) September 3, 2025
This single sentence disarmed the controversy, transformed a subtle dig into a shared joke, and publicly signaled that the supposed ‘rift’ with his former captain was, at least in this context, a matter to be laughed about.
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