Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif has heaped praise on Mohammad Azharuddin’s captaincy for nurturing Sourav Ganguly as a captain. He also said that MS Dhoni developed his leadership qualities after learning traits from Ganguly and Azharuddin.
While talking on his YouTube channel, Rashid Latif said that he had great respect for Azharuddin, who is the most controversial Indian captain. He believes that Azharuddin played a great role in developing Ganguly as a captain under whom great players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid played.
“I respect Mohammad Azharuddin a lot. He served Indian cricket for a long time and left someone like Sourav Ganguly. Azharuddin played a great role in developing Ganguly as a captain. Greats like Sachin and Dravid played under Ganguly,” Latif said in a YouTube show called Caught Behind.
MS Dhoni combined Azharuddin, Ganguly’s Quality To Form Match-Winning Team: Rashid Latif
Latif expressed that Azharuddin shaped Ganguly. But he also said that Ganguly’s leadership qualities were in-born. He added that the recently retired Indian captain Dhoni combined the traits of his successors and built a match-winning team. The cricketer-turned-YouTuber said that MSD instilled a winning mindset in Team India.
“Then if you have a look at Dhoni’s career, it depended somewhat on Ganguly. The kind of mindset and leadership qualities Ganguly had was in-born.
“Mohammad Azharuddin made Ganguly. And Dhoni combined both of their qualities and created his own style according to modern-day cricket. He got the match-winning belief in the team, developed that culture in the team, instilled that winning mindset,” he added.
Applauding the World Cup-winning captain, Rashid Latif said that leaders like Dhoni take risks and back players to form a match-winning team.
“Dhoni won three world titles which no captain has ever done. Leaders like Dhoni took risks to take the team forward, he motivated young players. He tried to mold cricketers according to his character. Captains like this instill self-confidence in players,” Latif added.
MS Dhoni retired from international cricket on 15 August. He will be seen playing for Chennai Super Kings in the upcoming IPL edition.