‘India built a cricket industry. But hum kya kar rahein hain?’: Rashid Latif exposes major flaw in Pakistan setup

Pakistan cricket has been under the scanners after their poor performances in the last couple of white-ball ICC tournaments. Babar Azam and Co. failed to qualify for the knockout stages of both ODI World Cup 2023 and T20 World Cup 2024. The drama at the Pakistan Cricket Board in the last few years has also had a negative impact on the image of their cricket. On the other hand, Pakistan’s arch-rivals India have become a superpower in world cricket, performing consistently well in the ICC events.

Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif pointed out the reason why Pakistan’s cricket is lagging way behind India, which has developed a cricketing industry within the country.

“India, just like their film industry, developed a cricket industry. We treat cricket as a hobby that’s why we couldn’t turn it into a business,” Latif said.

The veteran wicketkeeper also suggested that the Pakistan Super League is also no match to the Indian Premier League, where overseas stars like Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc get over INR 20 crore to play.

“PSL is still there from where it had started. The highest salary cap is $1.40 lakh. Why can’t they push it further? Why can’t we have players like Mitchell Starc or Pat Cummins? Because we don’t have the money so there’s no business,” Latif was quoted as saying by News18.

The Indian team recently lifted the 2024 T20 World Cup trophy under Rohit Sharma’s leadership while Pakistan won a major ICC trophy way back in 2017. The Green Army failed to make a mark in the recently concluded T20 WC, where they were knocked out of the group stage after losing to the USA, a non-Test playing team and arch-rivals India.

Latif further asserted that the Indian team have gained knowledge from the overseas coaches over the years and the involvement of foreign legends as coaches in IPL also worked wonders for them to improve their game.

“It’s not that India became a reckoning force in world cricket recently, after the World Cup. Go back to 2007, 2011, 2015. They have gained so much knowledge from the foreign coaches and at the same time, they are working at the grassroots level without being noticed. And then IPL came into play. And now, they have all the best minds with them. They have Ponting with DC, Hussey, and Bravo. But hum kya kar rahe hain,” Latif added.