Pakistan v UAE
McLean Park, Napier
It was stifling midday, clammy even in the shade at a cricket ground in Lahore in June 2008 when a security officer at the gate informed Aaqib Javed someone wanted to see him.
A middle-aged man had brought two players from Multan, a city about 350km via road from Lahore for the then chief of Pakistan Cricket Academy to scrutinise.
It was "boiling" 45C outside in the northern summer so Javed simply wanted to get it done and over with in a country where "unstructured cricket" offers hope akin to winning lottery.
People dare to dream, having a tendency to walk off the streets to catch a selector's eye in pursuit of fairy-tale endings in a poverty-stricken part of the world.
"By the time they got in I thought, who on earth is this guy? I was looking up at the sky," said Javed at Nelson Park, Napier, last week, where his United Arab Emirates men were training and playing warm-up games against a Central Districts A selection.
That introverted bloke was Mohammad Irfan, all 2.16m of him, offering a limp hand, calloused by working in a pipe factory, to shake.
Javed cut to the chase, impressing on Irfan and his much shorter accomplice the significance of a national academy reserved for those who exuded excellence.
"I said, 'Look, I'll give you 10-15 minutes. For a tall fellow like you, if you clock 130 [km/h] you definitely have a chance'," a grinning Javed recalled, before turning to the "normal height" bloke to say if he wanted to impress him he had to flirt with the 140km/h mark.
The pair did not say a word as Javed instructed his analyst to prop up a speed gun and camera.
"He was a really tall guy but thin. He had on rubber shoes and didn't have proper spikes," he said, of a young man who came from a humble background of a traditional farming family in Gaggu Mandi, Burewala, from where Inzamam ul-haq and Waqar Younis hailed - the incumbent Pakistan coach was infamously dubbed "the Burewala Express" when he bowled in tandem with Wasim Akram.
"He [Irfan] had long legs but wasn't strong enough," Javed revealed, excited he could comfortably reach 130km/h, although the other bowler missed out.
He asked Irfan to bring some gear because he was going to be with the camp for a while.
A training regime for the left-arm bowler followed in a bid to harden and temper his body template over six months.
"I told him that at this high end he wasn't going to last long unless he built up his legs and core muscles."
Javed attributed Irfan's ensuing progress into the international arena to the dedication of one his trainers.
"At that time he was just a bowler. He could run and deliver, that's it.
"He had no idea about cricket," the UAE coach said, adding Irfan played at a social competitive level with a taped ball.
The second the word got out Javed had included Irfan he started receiving caustic remarks from several quarters.
"Everybody criticised me. People were saying, what was I going to get out of all this?"
He pacified critics, drawing attention to Irfan's raw credentials - his height alone was an imposing proposition.
"I said, he can bowl 130-plus so what else do you want?"
The Irfan project was not simply about helping ease him into the Pakistan international team but also preparing him for professionalism.
With desirable fitness attained, and a first-class team, Khan Research Laboratories beckoned in 2009.
"People got excited from there and they started believing that a guy at 7-foot-1 was getting more bounce and good angles for a yorker."
The following northern summer he made the Pakistan A cull.
In 2010, Irfan was ushered into his country's premier team after Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif became embroiled in the spot-fixing fiasco.
His ODI debut on tour in England did not feature on the seismic scale - it did not help that he had not claimed any scalps, suffered cramps, barely got to the 130km/h mark and Pakistan had lost the series.
Amid widespread grumblings, he was dropped from the squad and not recalled until 2012.
"That was unfair on him. He was [introduced] too early," said Javed, the then Pakistan bowling coach who questioned why he was fast-tracked when he had not been through the age-group process and exposed to enough first-class cricket.
"Now he is one of the most exciting bowlers in the world," he said, beaming from ear to ear, immensely satisfied in seeing the late bloomer prosper.
"When you're working in a pipe factory somewhere at home, you're hardly imagining things like playing for Pakistan.
"His life's turned around completely and I think he's one of the happiest people in the world."
Javed noticed during the second ODI match against the Black Caps at McLean Park last Tuesday that Irfan had beefed up.
"I think he needs to work on his fitness because he was much fitter a year ago," he said.
As Pakistan trained at Nelson Park last week, Irfan lumbered behind the rest of his jogging teammates, but Javed appreciated you needed to cut him some slack for his sheer size.
He could see Irfan terrorising batsmen for at least another three to four years provided he strengthened his core muscles.
The strike bowler's inability to claim LBWs played second fiddle to his predisposition to give batsmen a hurry-up with short-pitched deliveries.
Disappointingly, Pakistan captain Misbah ul Haq set a passive field when Irfan bowled on Tuesday as top-edge catches went begging around the gully and fine-leg region.
"What worries me more is that he doesn't have another bowler from the other end who can support him," Javed said, adding Pakistan would miss Junaid Khan's input.
Apart from Irfan and Shahid Afridi, Pakistan look anaemic in bowling stocks.
Coach Waqar Younis has called in ODI rookie Rahat Alit to replace Khan, although ICC has deemed offspinner Saeed Ajmal's action legal.
"I was really disappointed to see the Pakistanis' fitness level," said Javed, adding the loss of five fast bowlers was a testimony to that.
"They need to start a fitness culture, especially if you want to win one-day games."
UAE play Pakistan at McLean Park, Napier, on Wednesday, March 4.
Javed was comfortable they could contain Irfan's attack.
"We only played him last year in a two-day game," he said, revealing his 15-man squad had been facing countless short-pitch deliveries before jetting to Melbourne on Saturday to play warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan.