'People will forget Sachin Tendulkar after watching him' - Rashid Latif recalls how Tanvir Ahmed introduced MS Dhoni to him

When it comes to modern-day cricket, very few match the aura of MS Dhoni. The former India cricketer is regarded as the best captain ever to have played international cricket as he is the only player who led his country to the title in all three ICC events. While Dhoni’s career turned out to be an inspirational one, it wasn’t easy for him to break into the national side.

His struggles were shown in the movie MS Dhoni – The Untold Story itself. He received his maiden call-up after sizzling on India A tour of Kenya in 2004. In the tri-series also involving Pakistan A, Dhoni was the highest run-getter with 362 runs to his name in six innings at an average of 72.40 with two centuries and a fifty. This is when the former Pakistan bowler Tanvir Ahmed had realised that a superstar will soon be playing international cricket.

The conversation between Tanvir and Rashid

He was with Pakistan A team in Kenya then and was overawed to see MS Dhoni. He had called Rashid Latif then and told him about the wicketkeeper-batsman stating that people will forget Sachin Tendulkar after watching him bat. Though Rashid denied then, he now admits that only Dhoni has come close to Sachin in terms of brand value.

“I remember I spoke to Tanvir Ahmed who had gone to the tour to Kenya in 2004. I was in England at the time. I spoke to him on phone. Tanvir told me that Rashid bhai, a player has come who will make people forget about Sachin Tendulkar. I said ‘that is not possible. Sachin is Sachin, how can you get a player like this’. But Dhoni came quite close to Sachin in his career in terms of brand value,” Latif recalled in the latest episode of Youtube show ‘Caught Behind’.

As Tanvir Ahmed expected, MS Dhoni made his debut against Bangladesh in December 2004 and the rest is history. He retired from international cricket last month on August 15 with more than 16000 runs at the highest level. He played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20 Internationals for India and apart from the ICC titles, also won the IPL thrice.