14 Interesting Facts of Rashid Latif

Rashid Latif, born 14^th October 1968, was a bohemian cricketer during the late 90s era. It won’t be wrong to say that controversy chased the ace Pakistan wicket-keeper wherever he went. It was his sheer honesty and sincerity that made him a prominent face in the world of cricket. Also, he was a gifted cricketer with immense knowledge about the gentlemen’s game. Somehow his unfortunate luck didn’t offer him that astonishing career records that he really deserved.

In the beginning of his career, Rashid Latif faced some stiff challenges from his own colleague Moin Khan. Pakistan often seemed confused whether to choose Latif, a wicket keeper par excellence or Moin, one of the finest batsmen in Pakistan team in those days after Saeed Anwar and Inzamam-Ul-Haq. In brief, selectors often seemed completely baffled to choose between these two.

Cricket Tracker brings you 14 interesting facts about Rashid Latif as he turned 47-year-old today:

1.Born and Brought-Up 

Rashid Latif was born in Karachi into a middle-class family. During his early days he didn’t have the money to buy gloves of his own, so he used the gloves that club offered him.

2.First Session for United Bank Limited (UBL)

Rashid Latif played quite a few unofficial matches for UBL in his initial days. He scored 323 runs from 11 matches with 44 catches and 11 matches in the first season that made him popular in the country.

3.Test Debut

In his maiden international Test, he scored 50 runs off 87 balls with 6 boundaries against England at Oval Test in 1992-93 seasons.

4.Latif’s first International Victim

At Oval Test, Rashid Latif caught Michael Atherton off Wasim Akram which eventually marked his first international Test dismissal.

5.When Boycott’s Prophesy Went Wrong

Legendary batsman and cricket commentator Geoffrey Boycott was sure that Latif couldn’t score more than 35 at the Oval Test because of his eerie batting style. But the prolific Pakistani scored a fluent 50 to prove his distracters including Geoffrey Boycott wrong.

6.Retirement (1996)

Just within 3-4 years of his international career, Rashid Latif shocked everyone when he announced his retirement from cricket owing to some difference between his team mates for their alleged involvement in the match-fixing controversy. However, he made a comeback after a hiatus of few months.

7.Ten Catches at Harare Test (1998)

At Harare Test against Zimbabwe, Rashid Latif scalped 10 stunning catches to help Pakistan win the Test by 3 wickets – his first win as a skipper of the side.

8.Latif’s Test Debut as a Captain (1998)

Rashid Latif entered the record book in a dubious manner when he scored 2 consecutive ducks at his 2 successive innings in the first Test as a Test captain.

9.Sacked from Captaincy

After a series loss to South Africa in the same year, Rashid Latif was immediately sacked as captain of Pakistan national cricket team. In his own words, he was made captain that he didn’t deserve but then dropped from the side altogether for the next 3 years.

10.Highest Individual Score

Rashid Latif scored his highest individual score of 150 against West Indies at Sharjah in 2001. He also added quick unbeaten 47 in the second innings to amass 197 as his test match aggregate – third highest by Pakistani Wicket Keeper in the international match.

11.Career Stats

Rashid Latif chipped in 119 catches and 11 stumpings in his 37-Test career. He also scored 1381 Test runs with 1 ton and 7 fifties. Similarly, in ODIs, former Pakistani captain managed 182 catches and 38 stumpings in his 166-ODI career with 1709 ODI runs.

12.Second Best to Ian Healy

During the decade of late 90s to 2002, Rashid Latif earned a lot of praises for his awestruck wicket-keeping style and ability to perform brilliantly behind the stumps. Media often termed him to be the second best after the Aussie legend Ian Healy in this period.

13.Mr. Clean of Cricket

Rashid Latif is perceived to be the Mr. clean of cricket. He is against batting powerplay and also advised ICC to delay the live telecast of cricket match by half-an-hour to reduce match-fixing or spot fixing and other kinds of corruptions associated with it.

14.Major Teams

Pakistan, Allied Bank, Karachi, United Bank Limited