Seventeen-year-old Shaik Rasheed missed his hundred by a whisker in the ICC U-19 World Cup semifinal against Australia on Wednesday, but the gutsy 94 impressed his mentor and former BCCI chairman of selectors, M.S.K. Prasad.
“From the day I saw him, I never had any doubt about him making it big. He has all the qualities to be a wonderful cricketer. He has a great passion for the game and was extremely hard-working from his early days," Prasad told Sportstar a day after the Guntur-born batter's knock.
His father, who worked in a fertilisers shop besides other odd jobs, realised that Rasheed had the talent and backed him completely.
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Prasad said Rasheed was another product of the ACA residential academies project during his stint as Director (Cricket Operations). In his tenure, every district headquarter in Andhra Pradesh saw a full-fledged cricket ground with facilities for an academy. “That was possible because of our ACA Secretary then Dr. G. Gangaraju and the Academy mentor Kinjal Suratwala,” he said.
“In fact, to our delight, Rasheed started scoring consistently in all the age groups he played in the ACA League,” the former India stumper said.
“So, it was no surprise for all of us when Rasheed got selected in India U-19 based on his consistent performances in domestic cricket,” he said.
Since Rasheed was a gifted cricketer, he was sent to the UK for special training at the age of 13 as ACA had a tie-up with Cricket Beyond Boundaries which was started by Dr Sameer Pathak.
Rasheed had stayed in the UK for a couple of months and even played local league matches at Barnard Castle.
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