Shaik Rasheed’s journey to West Indies wouldn’t have been possible had he was not spotted by MSK Prasad and his APCA (Andhra Pradesh Cricket Academy) who arranged for him to visit England where he stayed and played two months of school cricket which only have him better exposure on how the world operates. In an exclusive with News 18, Prasad, former India selector, also revealed hos Rashid’s father was worried for his future before he met him.
“When Shaik was six or seven years old, his father was very passionate about cricket and wanted to make his son into a good cricketer. Hailing from a small town in Guntur, he went to Hyderabad for his son’s coaching. He was running here and there, and finally when we at Andhra CA started residential academies, he admitted his son to one of our academies, where J Krishna Rao was the head coach. Though coming from a humble, tough background, the father’s passion for cricket did not die.”
“All his problems ended when we at Andhra CA adopted him. In our academies, we have 105 kids of different age groups like the Under-14, U-16 and U-19. Shaik is housed at Mangalgiri academy. His coaching, clothing and education are given free. We spend ₹15,000 on each trainee every month. This is how we use the funds from the board,” he told News 18.
Prasad said that Rasheed’s quest for scoring extended beyond the boundaries of Andhra. “We have a tie-up with a foreign NGO called Cricket Beyond Boundaries run by Samir Pathak, who started supporting players from humble backgrounds.”
As part of that programme, Rasheed was sent by Andhra CA to England, where he played for Barnard Castle School in Durham in 2016. Prasad said: “We wanted kids at an early age to get international exposure. The horizon of the mind increases when you see the conditions beyond what you imagine here. That is the reason why we sent him to England. We always felt that when he grows big and plays for the country, these international exposures will help him. It should not look a little naïve for him at a younger age.”
“Once he comes back from English cricket, it makes him very tough. Keeping these things in mind, we sent him to England. He stayed there for two months with Samir tying up with a school there. He also scored a hundred there at the age of 13.”
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