Former Pakistan skipper Rashid Latif has claimed that former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin played a great role in the development of Sourav Ganguly, saying the latter should be credited for molding the current BCCI President as the future leader.
Azharuddin was an invisible mentor for many young talents during his time as captain in the 90s and helped groom many fine cricketers for the Indian cricket and former captain Ganguly is one of them.
Ganguly made his Test and ODI debuts in 1996 and 1992 respectively under the captaincy of Azharuddin and went on to become one of the most successful Indian captains.
He has been credited for changing the attitude of the Indian cricket team from a mere ‘gentlemen’ to ‘aggressive’ and left a mighty team for MS Dhoni to win all ICC trophies for India.
Hailing Azharuddin, Latif said the former Indian skipper deserves a lot of credit for developing leadership qualities in Ganguly. He also said just like Azhar deserves credit for molding Ganguly as a leader, the current BCCI president had a big role in shaping Dhoni’s career while hailing the legendary wicketkeeper-batsman.
Latif said in a YouTube show named “Caught Behind”: “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.”
He further added, “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. Azharuddin made Ganguly. And Dhoni combined both of their qualities and created his own style according to modern-day cricket.”
On Dhoni’s captaincy, Latif noted: “He got the match-winning belief in the team, developed that culture in the team, instilled that winning mindset. 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.”
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