CENTURION: In the last week, Sikandar Raza has had a ball, quite literally, on the cricket field. As the first cricketer from Zimbabwe to take part in the SA20 league, Raza has taken seven wickets (3/27 and 4/13) for Paarl Royals in just two games, making the stage his own.
For a veteran of franchise leagues all over the world, Raza dominating the shortest format comes as no surprise. However, he has done so in the last week while still battling the grief of his 13-year-old brother’s untimely death. Raza’s brother, Muhammad Mahdi, passed away on December 29 in Harare due to health-related complications. The senior Zimbabwe all-rounder, having finished his commitments with Sharjah Warriorz in the ILT20 on December 26 and was gearing up for his first SA20 match when his brother passed away.
He was still grieving; he knew it was a personal loss that would stay with him for the rest of his life. But Raza knew what he had to do. To get back on the cricket field and do what he does best — win matches for his team. “I think that part of my life will always be difficult,” Raza said in a select media interaction after the Royals beat MI Cape Town in Newlands on Sunday. “But I did say to my team as well, if I wasn't mentally, physically and emotionally ready, I wouldn't be here. ‘The fact that I think that I can add value, I've decided to join you, and I will take nothing away from you. I'll give as much as I can to the team, the energy, the experience, whatever you ask me to do, I'll do it’. So yeah, it's nice to be here,” he added. And in the first two games, he has already shown the value he brings to the table.
More importantly, with a T20 World Cup to play for in India and Sri Lanka, the Zimbabwe captain knew he could use all the match time he got. “I think the more cricket we have before the World Cup, the more match fitness and rhythm we will find ourselves in. So it was nice to have three Zimbabweans at ILT20. Unfortunately, Blessing Muzarabani was supposed to be there as well, but he got injured, and he was doing his rehab. Alhamdulillah, he's fit now. So the more Zimbabweans that play cricket, it will be very good for the country and also going into the World Cup, it will be very useful,” Raza said.
The 39-year-old said that Zimbabwe will reach Sri Lanka, where they are originally scheduled to play all their games, a week before the warm-up matches to get acclimatised. However, amidst the ongoing issue with Bangladesh refusing to travel to India, it remains to be seen whether their schedule changes. “The World Cup is really crucial in every cricketer's life. And I always think that for Zimbabwe to gain more respect in world cricket, World Cups play a huge part. We have the mindset to go there and try and do really well so that we can come back with our heads held high and so that our people back home can have their heads held high as well. Results are not in our hands, and we don't worry about it too much. As long as we're playing a good brand of cricket and we're doing exactly what the game asks us to do, we'll have the result,” he signed off.
