Younis Khan pushing me to join national team’s coaching staff : Rashid Latif

ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan wicket-keeper captain Rashid Latif has said captain Younis Khan has been asking him to join the national team’s coaching staff for the last one year.

In an interview with PakPassion.net, Latif said his commitments with the National Cricket Academy and his family was keeping him away from joining the national team.

“Younis has been asking me for the past year to join the coaching setup for the national team. However I am just so busy with my work at my academies and now the National Cricket Academy in Karachi,” Latif said.

Latif said he is also looking forward for working with team coach Intikhab Alam, but have not decided to join the team yet.

“It would be fantastic to work with Intikhab Alam, a coach who has won 2 World Cups, in fact I would be honoured, but at this moment in time I am undecided about the role and also nobody at the PCB has actually sat down and talked about the role yet with me,” he said.

When asked about the tainted fast bowler Mohammad Asif, he said : “Asif is working very hard and I firmly believe that he has learnt his lessons and after this camp I intend to give Pakistan back the Mohammad Asif that was such a fine bowler, before his problems.”

Rashid applauded young batting sensation Umer Akmal for his brilliant show during the Sri Lanka series, but said he needs to polish his skills to become an indispensable part of the national squad.

“Umar is someone who has not come through the academy system, but that’s not to say that he wont need to work at the academies in future. He’s new to international cricket and teams will already be analyzing his strengths and weaknesses. He’s a fantastic talent and if he continues to work hard on his game he will do very well,” he said. (ANI)