Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam.
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Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has examined the decline in his country’s cricket setup, highlighting the differences from India’s approach. The Men in Blue recently clinched the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean by defeating South Africa in the final. Indian captain Rohit Sharma credited the team’s hard work over the past years for their triumph, ending a long drought of ICC titles.
Meanwhile, Pakistan cricket has been criticized by fans for their inconsistency in major tournaments and reports of unrest in the dressing room. The Pakistani team has been grappling to form a formidable unit since their victory in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The disappointing performance in the T20 World Cup 2024 has prompted the board to initiate squad reconstruction.
Latif highlighted the differences between the two cricketing nations. He said with IPL being data-driven, India has increased their talent pool. On the other hand, PSL is yet to make progress.
“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,” Latif said.
“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,” he added.
The ex-cricketer emphasized how India transformed the IPL into a global brand, whereas the PSL did not achieve similar levels of success.
“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. 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 Oat Cummins? Because we don’t have the money so there’s in no business,” Latif said.
“People who conceptualized PSL were thrown out within a year. They had a vision to expand it but it never happened. Humse zyada players Bangladesh mein khel rahe hain (BPL has more foreign players than PSL). Moeen Ali is there, and so is David Miller, just because they have the money. We couldn’t progress,” he concluded.