Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif opined on the massive difference between Pakistan’s cricket and India’s and how India has grown theirs into an industry. However, Team India recently won the 2024 T20 World Cup title without losing a game whereas Pakistan got out in the group stages. Both teams have seen different successes in their respective T20 Leagues, the Indian Premier League (IPL) and PSL (Pakistan Super League).
He was quoted as saying by News18: “India, just like their film industry, developed a cricket industry. We treat cricket as a hobby that’s why we couldn’t turn it into a business. PSL is still there from where it had started. The highest salary cap is $1.40 lakh. Why can’t they push it further? Why can’t we have players like Mitchell Starc or Pat Cummins? Because we don’t have the money so there’s in no business.”
“It’s 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,” Latif further added.
While India have seen great success in white-ball cricket, winning the recently concluded T20 World Cup and finishing runners-up in the ODI World last year, Pakistan failed to qualify for the semi-final in both occasions as well. Rashid Latif further shared how even the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) has become better with more overseas stars than the PSL. The BPL started more than a decade back in 2012 and the PSL had its first edition in 2016 as well.
“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 couldn’t progress,” again shared Rashid Latif.
