Posted on behalf of Farhan Nisar
Exclusive interview of Former Pakistani captain and wicket keeper Rashid Latif conducted by Farhan Nisar for KheloPakistan in Lahore. Rashid spoke openly about his career and all his experiences around cricket. Widely regarded as one of Pakistan's greatest keepers ever, Rashid played 37 Test matches for Pakistan which included 130 dismissals. Also a veteran of 166 ODI's, he helped himself to well over 200 dismissals in the 50 over format.
Farhan Nisar (FN): Wicket-keeping is called a thankless job. Do you agree?
Rashid Latif (RL): I don’t agree to this because wicketkeeper acts as a team’s backbone. But it’s a fact that a wicketkeeper’s mistake gets caught too easily. On the other hand, if a keeper scores 40, 50 runs it causes considerable damage to the opposition.
FN: Why did you take up wicket-keeping specifically as a career?
RL: It wasn’t in my hands because I had been wicket-keeping since childhood and so had little choice. I just had to do wicket-keeping, Allah had gifted me with a talent and it was my wish to entertain people with it.
FN: Who was your wicket-keeping idol or inspiration?
RL: Wicket-keeping was my ultimate passion. Jeff Dujon was my wicket-keeping idol and I used to emulate him. Other than that I played alongside Saleem Yousaf for Customs and he helped me a lot too.
FN: Which performance in domestic cricket earned you a call on Pakistan’s 1992 England tour?
RL:My first season with United Bank was very good and gave me immense prominence. In the 1990-91 season I had 47 victims in 7 or 8 matches with majority of the catches off Waqar Younis’s bowling in the first slip area. Waqar was at the peak of his career and he promoted me a lot, saying if there is any keeper in Pakistan it is Rashid who will represent Pakistan in a year or so. I felt really grateful to him.
FN: Why did you get a chance in the last Test on the 1992 England tour?
RL: During the side matches I had many catches but understandably you cannot change a wicket-keeper that quickly, especially a world-cup winning wicket-keeper. Therefore, I got my chance in the last Test.
FN: Was Moin Khan’s bad performance in the first four Tests a reason behind your debut?
RL: Yes, this was the main reason because Moin didn’t perform to his caliber. He dropped many catches and consequently I was given a chance. Had Moin performed to his potential, there was no question about me getting a chance.
FN: Didn’t you and Moin playing at the same time proved damaging for both?
RL: People also say that but in my opinion it benefited Pakistan a lot. I played for 12 years and Moin for 14 years and Pakistan faced no problems regarding wicket-keeping during this time. It is a huge thing because a new wicket-keeper can easily be ready to replace in 14 years. There was a lot of competition between the two of us and it benefited Pakistan greatly but after us there wasn’t any competition at all.
FN: Out of Rashid Latif and Moin Khan who was a better wicket-keeper?
RL: Moin Khan was definitely better because he was a tough player who always performed in crisis situation. I don’t think that I have performed for Pakistan in important situations as much as Moin Khan. Moreover, he is a world cup winner. Though, I have performed better in Test cricket because Pakistan won 25 of the 39 Test matches I played.
FN: You guys were at war to make it to the team but how was your relation off the field?
RL: There wasn’t such a big a war between us to make it to the team because I was always confident and I played whenever I wanted to and left when I wanted to. If I was bent upon playing, it was difficult to keep me out of the team. I had family terms with Moin which exist to this day and we also work together in Karachi in our academies’ joint ventures. Moin’s elder brother Nadeem Khan was my university classmate too.
FN: How hard was it to keep against Wasim and Waqar at their peak?
RL: I never found keeping against them difficult because I employed very different maethods during training than the convential ones. If they bowled at speeds of 90 m/h or 95 m/h, I used to practice keeping at 150 m/h after whick I had minimal problems keeping against them.
Rashid Latif opened many mysteries about match-fixing, explained why he took controversial catch against Bangladesh in 2003 and his life after retirement. You can read all this in next part of this interview. It is to be remembered that the interview was done in Urdu and been converted into English. Any unintentional errors may/not have been made. You can follow Farhan on Twitter.
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