Rashid Latif

Former Pakistani wicket keeper and a right-handed batsman, Rashid Latif was born on 14 October 1968 in Karachi. He graduated (BSc) in Computer System Engg from NED University of Engineering and Technology. He remained part of the Pakistan cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International matches, between 1992 and 2003. He also served as the captain of the Pakistan cricket team in 2003.

Rashid Latif started playing for the Pakistan national cricket team in 1992 after the 1992 Cricket World Cup. He impressed the national selectors by scoring 50 runs in his Test debut. However, it did not secure his place in the national squad as throughout his career he had to compete with wicket-keeper, Moin Khan. This led to frequent changes of wicket keepers in the next decade.

In 1996, He announced his retirement after conflicts with some players and the team management and remained out of the national squad until 2001, when after a string of poor performances, the Pakistan team replaced Moin Khan. After returning into the squad, he secured his place by keeping the wicket and giving a string of good batting performances.

The highlight of his career came after the 2003 Cricket World Cup, when he was announced the captain of the Pakistan team. Under his leadership, Pakistan successfully experimented with several new players and the team gave positive results. He was also involved with uniting the players through his captaincy in both on and off the cricket field.

However, problems between Latif and the team management again surfaced in 2003–04, which resulted in him giving away the captaincy to former Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq. He was omitted from the squad and since then has never been recalled in the team, despite his attempts to get back into the squad during 2003–05.

In April 2006, Latif retired from First class cricket as he toured with the senior Pakistani players to play against Indian senior players in April 2006 in a series played between players who have retired from professional cricket. Latif has not participated in domestic first class cricket since 2005. His last match was in 2006, when he played for Lashings cricket club, a club in England.

He has notably become batting coach of the Afghanistan National Cricket team. Rashid Latif also stated that the Afghan players were keen to learn from him. He further added that he liked the challenge of coaching the team and helping at grass-roots level of Afghan cricket; in July 2010 he also talked about having a Pakistan-Afghanistan cricket series in late 2010 to help Pakistan return to staging international cricket.

As a wicket-keeper Latif also commented on the form of Pakistani wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal by stating that Kamran has gained weight for a wicket-keeper, his wicket-keeping has been poor due to that and a lot of work load as a cricketer. I strongly suggest to all wicket-keepers that when they are struggling they take a rest and then come back to the scene stronger as poor wicket-keeping can destroy your confidence as a batsman.

In August 2010 the coach of the Afghan team Kabir Khan announced that he was going to leave his post because of consistent interference by the board. This led to Latif, who was batting coach at the time, to be named his successor. However just after that Latif announced his resignation also citing consistent interference caused by the board.

In 2010, Latif responded to the spot-fixing allegations against the Pakistan team by saying that ICC needs to re-design its laws and rules to root out the match-fixing and spot-fixing problem. He wrote a letter to ICC citing his concerns back in 2003, in that letter, he suggested to change the rules and laws in one-day internationals which, were more prone to spot-fixing. He even offered to assist the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit but got no response.

The key to design laws and rules that do not allow players and bookmakers to manipulate things. He suggested to ICC, to remove the fielding restrictions but they introduced the power-play which only encouraged fixing. Latif also stated that he believed that a broad-cast delay of 30 seconds would help curb fixing.

Following this statement, Latif resigned from his job as wicket-keeping coach at the Pakistan National Cricket Academy and subsequently reconciled with the Afghan Cricket Board and returned as the team's coach. He stated that his aim was to help the team get the status to play Test cricket in two years' time.

Rashid latif was appointed as the head coach of Pakistan cricket team on 7th April 2016, after Waqar younis resigned. He is currently one of the members of the Advisory board as well as the director of Pakistan Super League's franchise Karachi Kings.