Irrfan Khan death: Film star abandoned blooming cricket career in youth due to poverty

Irrfan Khan over the years showed his versatility on screen both in Hollywood as well as Bollywood. His expressions while acting spoke louder than the words, but even before entering the film industry, Irrfan Khan had aspirations to become a cricketer. Not many are aware that Irrfan Khan played cricket seriously before entering the world of cinema. The versatile actor once recalled about his selection for the famous domestic CK Nayudu tournament, but he did not play it due to lack of funds. 

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Irrfan Khan death: What is the Irrfan Khan cause of death?

The Irrfan Khan cause of death is said to be a severe colon infection he had after being admitted to Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital on Tuesday. According to various reports, the actor was kept under observation for colon infection at the hospital after suffering a breathing problem following the loss of his mother last Saturday. The actor had announced that he had been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour in 2018.

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Irrfan Khan death: Here is why versatile actor dumped his cricket career

According to The Telegraph India, Irrfan Khan had revealed in an interview in 2014 that he wanted to become a cricketer and played as an all-rounder in childhood. Being a huge MS Dhoni fan, Khan further said that he wanted to make a career out of it and was even selected for the CK Nayudu tournament but couldn't play in it. He added that he had to travel with the team from Jaipur to Ajmer and for that he had to pay ₹600 but didn’t know who to ask. On the contrary, his relative could only arrange ₹300 for him, which could make his parents allow him to go to Delhi's National School of Drama to pursue a full-fledging acting career. So from that day, he decided not to pursue cricket professionally.

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Later on, during an interaction on Son of Abish, Irrfan had revealed that the situation in his house was such that his family never encouraged to have a career in sports and he had to lie to go to play and made excuses when being asked where he was. During the interaction, Khan also said that he was an all-rounder who preferred batting more, although his captain had found in him a handy bowler. He also said that he had no clue about what prompted his captain to make that decision but he used to tell him, 'Throw a nice one', and he used to just thrown and somehow get a couple of wickets.

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Irrfan Khan death: Irrfan Khan movies in Bollywood 

Many Irrfan Khan movies have always left an impact on the minds of fans and the last movie before his sudden demise was Angrezi Medium. He is well known for his role as a police inspector in the Hollywood movie Slumdog Millionaire. The other Irrfan Khan movies which are remembered till date are Haider (2014), Hindi Medium (2017),  Academy Award-nominated film Salaam Bombay, Maqbool (2004), Paan Singh Tomar (2011), The Lunchbox (2013), Gunday (2014), Piku (2015) and Talvar (2015). In 2013, Irrfan Khan won India's National Film Award for his leading role in Paan Singh Tomar, a biopic about a top athlete who becomes a bandit.