Rashid Latif
Encyclopedia
Rashid Latif is a former Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

i wicket keeper and a right handed batsman who represented the Pakistani cricket team
Pakistani cricket team
The Pakistan cricket team is the national cricket team of Pakistan. Pakistan, represented by the Pakistan Cricket Board , is a full member of the International Cricket Council, and thus participates in , and cricket matches....

 in Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

 and One Day International matches, between 1992 and 2003. He also served as the captain of the Pakistan cricket team in 2003. Latif is the current coach of the Afghan National Cricket Team .

Career

Latif started playing for the Pakistan national cricket team in 1992 after the 1992 Cricket World Cup
1992 Cricket World Cup
-New Zealand:-Round Robin Stage:Co-hosts New Zealand proved the surprise packet of the tournament, winning their first seven games to finish on top of the table after the round robin. The other hosts, Australia, were one of the pre-tournament favourites but lost their first two matches. They...

. He impressed the national selectors by scoring 50 runs in his Test debut, However it did not cement his place in the national squad, throughout his career because he was competing with another Pakistani wicketkeeper, Moin Khan
Moin Khan
Mohammad Moin Khan , popularly known as Moin Khan , is a former Pakistani cricketer, primarily a wicketkeeper-batsman, who remained a member of the Pakistani national cricket team from 1990 to 2004. He has also captained the Pakistani side. He made his international debut against the West Indies at...

. This led to ongoing changes of wicket keepers for the next decade. In 1996, he announced his retirement after conflicts with some team players and the team management. He returned back to the Pakistan team and became the captain of Pakistan in 1998.

Latif remained out of the national squad until 2001, when after a string of poor performances, the Pakistan team replaced Moin Khan
Moin Khan
Mohammad Moin Khan , popularly known as Moin Khan , is a former Pakistani cricketer, primarily a wicketkeeper-batsman, who remained a member of the Pakistani national cricket team from 1990 to 2004. He has also captained the Pakistani side. He made his international debut against the West Indies at...

, who was selected as the captain. After returning back into the squad, he somewhat cemented his place by keeping the wicket and giving a string of good batting performances. The highlight of his career came when after the 2003 Cricket World Cup
2003 Cricket World Cup
-Group stage tables and results:The top three teams from each pool qualify for the next stage, carrying forward the points already scored against fellow qualifiers, plus a quarter of the points scored against the teams that failed to qualify.-Pool A:...

, he was announced as the captain of the Pakistan team. Under his leadership, Pakistan successfully experimented with several new players and the team gave positive results. He was also involved with uniting the players through his captaincy in both on and off the cricket field. However, indifferences between Latif and the team management again surfaced in 2003-2004, which resulted in him giving away the captaincy to former Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Inzamam-ul-Haq , also known as Inzamam, nicknamed Inzy, is a former Pakistan international cricketer who was national captain between 2003 and 2007. He is a right-handed batsman who has been regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of his era...

. He was omitted from the squad and since then was never recalled in the team, despite his attempts to get back into the squad during 2003-2005.

In April 2006, Latif has retired from First class cricket as he toured with the Pakistani senior players to play against Indian senior players in April 2006. This series is played between players who have retired from professional cricket. Also, according to statistics available on ESPN cricinfo sport's website, it can be seen that Latif has not participated in first class cricket since 2005. His last international match was in 2006, when he played for Lashings cricket club, a club in England.

Coaching career

Latif has notably became batting coach of the Afghanistan National Cricket team  Latif also stated that the Afghan players were keen to learn from him. Latif further added that he liked the challenge of coaching the team and helping at grass-roots level of Afghan Cricket in July 2010 he also talked about having a Pakistan-Afghanistan cricket series in late 2010 to help Pakistan return to staging international cricket. As a wicket-keeper Latif also commented on the form of Pakistani wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal
Kamran Akmal
Kamran Akmal is a Pakistani cricketer who has played Tests, ODIs and T20Is for Pakistan as a wicket-keeper.- International career :He is a quick-scoring batsman and a wicket-keeper, who has achieved 6 centuries in Test innings...

 by stating that "Kamran has gained weight for a wicket-keeper, his wicket-keeping has been poor due to that and a lot of work load as a cricketer. I strongly suggest to all wicket-keepers that when they are struggling they take a rest and then comeback to the scene stronger as poor wicket-keeping can destroy you confident as a batsman." In August 2010 the coach of the Afghan team Kabir Khan announced that he was going to leave his post because of consistent interference by the board. This led to Latif who was batting coach at the time to be named his successor. However just after that Latif announced his resignation also citing consistent interference caused by the board.

In 2010, Latif responded to the spot fixing allegations against the Pakistan team by saying that ICC needs to re-design its laws and rules to root out the match fixing and spot fixing problem. Latif wrote a letter to the ICC citing his concerns back in 2003 ,"In that letter, I told them to change the rules and laws in one-day internationals which, were more prone to spot-fixing. I even offered to assist the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit but I got no response," he said.

"The key is to design laws and rules that do not allow players and bookmakers to manipulate things. I told the ICC remove the fielding restrictions and they introduced the power-play which only encouraged fixing."

Following this statement Latif resigned from his job as wicket-keeping coach at the Pakistan National Cricket Academy and subsequently reconciled with the Afghan Cricket Board and returned as the team's coach He stated that his aim was to help the team get the status to play Test cricket in two years time. Latif also stated that he believed that a broad-cast delay of 30 seconds would help curb fixing.

Latif's stint as Afghan coach got of to a good start when Afghanistan registered a 162 run win of Kenya in the ICC Intercontinental Cup
ICC Intercontinental Cup
The ICC Intercontinental Cup is a cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council as part of its cricket development programme...

 but then lost the first ODI by 92 runs as Kenya were bowled out for 160. But then Afghanistan's batting order collapsed for 88. The team took a six-wicket victory during the second ODI as Kenya sucummbed to 139 and Afghanistan's suffered a poor start with opener Noor Ali
Noor Ali
Noor Ali Zadran is an Afghan cricketer. Ali is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler who currently plays for the Afghanistan national cricket team...

 retiring hurt and Karim Sadiq being caught. However Asghar Stanikzai scored his second half-century and along with Mohammad Shahzad
Mohammad Shahzad
Mohammad Shahzad is an Afghan cricketer who is a right-handed batsman who plays primarily as a wicketkeeper. Shahzad represents Afghanistan in international cricket....

 who scored 37 guided the run chase. The finest moment of Latif's coaching career came at the 2010 Asian Games
2010 Asian Games
The 2010 Asian Games, also known as the XVI Asiad, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Guangzhou, China from November 12 to November 27, 2010. Guangzhou was the second Chinese city to host the Games, after Beijing in 1990...

 when Afghanistan upset the cricket super-power Pakistan in the semi-final as Afghanistan sealed a comfortable 22-run victory and setup a final tie with Bangladesh. However Afghanistan lost the final but the celebrated accomplishment was that the Afghanistan collected their first ever Asian games medal with a second place silver.

Latif's team next assignment was the ICC Intercontinental Cup
ICC Intercontinental Cup
The ICC Intercontinental Cup is a cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council as part of its cricket development programme...

 and Afghanistan play Scotland in the final. Latif stated that Afghanistan likes to play aggressive cricket and that the players are mentally very tough and hate to lose. On 2 December the match against Scotland started and because of Hamid Hassan Scotland were bowled out for 212. More than have of scotlands runs came from Neil McCallum
Neil McCallum (cricketer)
Neil Francis Ian McCallum is a Scottish cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman. He made his debut for Scotland on 4 July 2000 against an England Amateur team. McCullum has since represented Scotland in One Day Internationals, his first match at this level coming against Pakistan in June 2006...

 who scored 104*. Afghanistan got of to a good start but collapsed to 171 all out. Giving Scotland a 41 run lead. Despite this another great bowling performance from Hassan and Samiullah Shenwari
Samiullah Shenwari
Samiullah Shenwari is a right-handed batsman and leg break bowler who plays for Afghanistan.Shenwari is a part of the rapidly rising Afghan cricket team that in under a year has won the World Cricket League Division Five, Division Four and Division Three, thus promoting them to Division Two and...

 meant that Scotland were skittled for just 82 in their second innings. On the third day Afghanistan sealed victory early in the day with seven-wickets in hand courtesy of a superb 56* by Mohammad Shahzad
Mohammad Shahzad
Mohammad Shahzad is an Afghan cricketer who is a right-handed batsman who plays primarily as a wicketkeeper. Shahzad represents Afghanistan in international cricket....

.

Test Cricket centuries

  • In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
  • The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Test Cricket centuries of Rashid Latif
Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year
[1] 150 28 West Indies  Sharjah
Sharjah (city)
Sharjah is the third largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. It is located along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula.Sharjah is the seat of government of the emirate of Sharjah...

, UAE 
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium
The Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium is in the emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It was originally constructed in the early 1980s and has been much improved over the years...

 
2002

External links

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