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Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif has heaped praise on India for growing their cricketing ecosystem by leaps and bounds. Latif opined that Pakistan is massively backwards in this regard and observed how well India have worked at the grassroot level.
India's consistency over the years has reaped them the reward as they broke their 11-year ICC trophy drought this year to bag the T20 World Cup. On the other hand, Pakistan have struggled to get going since winning the Champions Trophy in 2017 and recently faced a humiliating group-stage exit in T20 World Cup 2024.
Latif hailed India for managing to recruit foreign coaches like Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, and Dwayne Bravo and feels PSL has struggled to pick themselves up. As quoted by News18, he said:
"Itās 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."
"India, just like their film industry, developed a cricket industry. We treat cricket as a hobby thatās why we couldnāt turn it into a business. PSL is still there from where it had started. The highest salary cap is $1.40 lakh."
"BPL has more foreign players than PSL" - Rashid Latif
The 55-year-old pointed out that even Bangladesh Premier League has progressed significantly compared to PSL, adding:
"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 couldnāt progress."
