Jarrod Kimber, CS Chiwanza
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A few kilometres southwest of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city, there is a small plot of land. Well-wishers came together and made a handful of modest buildings to create ‘The Centre for Total Transformation’, a non-profit organisation that educates and helps look after orphans and at-risk minors in the area. This is one of the places Sikandar Raza spends time at when he is in Zimbabwe.
Raza has been restocking their pantry and stationery supplies since 2019. That same year, he met Juliana. The eight-year-old girl had communication problems so bad that she handed him a card with her name as a way of introducing herself. Five years later, she can string sentences together. His relationship with the centre and Juliana speaks of the difference he has made to his adopted nation. Raza was a beautiful neon butterfly that appeared above the dank swamp of Zimbabwean cricket.
When they play at home, the 37-year-old helps fill the stadiums by buying hundreds of tickets for local fans who can’t afford entrance fees. When the Zimbabwe Under-19 team was on tour to India as part of their preparation for the Under-19 World Cup, he paid for them to watch IPL matches.
On the field, Raza has been colossal for Zimbabwe. Like all good allrounders do, Raza gives Zimbabwe great flexibility. They can bring in an extra batter to bolster a fragile line-up, while also having a reliable sixth bowling option. Since 2022, he has averaged 39, striking at 150. In matches that Zimbabwe has won, Raza has scored 10 half-centuries for an average of 58 at a strike rate of 170. With the ball, he has an economy rate of just 6.2, while averaging 14.6. That includes a four-wicket haul once, and three-wicket hauls five times.
Back in 2009, when Raza had come back to Zimbabwe after completing his studies at Glasgow University, former national team coach Stephen Mangongo thought he was an average cricketer with too many issues to overcome. Mangongo thought Raza would be better suited to a career outside of cricket. The people around Raza didn’t think he had viable prospects as a professional cricketer either.
But, in a show of application and focus that has come to define his career, Raza worked his way to a Zimbabwe international cap in five years. That limited player is now Zimbabwe’s highest run-getter in T20Is. He sits joint-third on the wickets tally, but his 58 scalps aren’t too far behind leader Tendai Chatar’s 62.
The birth of Raza 2.0
His numbers today would have seemed even more unlikely when he began his career. From his T20I debut in 2013, till 2021, his batting average was 13.4 and strike rate was 107. Then, in April 2021, Raza was forced to take an indefinite break from cricket following an operation to remove a malignant tumour from the bone marrow in his right shoulder. When he returned to cricket, it was as Raza 2.0, and he’s been operating on a rarefied field since then.
While his batting numbers jumped upwards steeply, his bowling experienced a similar surge. Till 2021, Raza had only 13 wickets in 42 T20Is, at a high average of 44 and an economy of 8.3. After his surgery, he could no longer bowl in his classical offspinner manner and had to either give up bowling or remodel his action. He chose the latter. His proximity to Sunil Narine in the BPL and CPL helped.
He is now only the fourth Zimbabwe cricketer to feature in the IPL, after Brendan Taylor, Ray Price and Tatenda Taibu. He rose through the ranks on the T20 circuit, having first played for the obscure Mis Ainak Knights in Afghanistan’s Shpageeza T20 Tournament in 2017.
Since 2022, Raza has played more than 100 T20 games for country and in franchise leagues. He’s made 2550 runs, at an average touching 30 and a strike rate of 144. In that same period, he has taken 89 wickets at an economy of 7.1, and an average of 22.7. As he does for Zimbabwe, Raza has been a reliable lower-order batter for franchises. He can play the long game in the event of a top-order collapse, or be an impact player when needed.
It took him five years of globetrotting before he made the breakthrough into the IPL. At the ripe age of 36, he was one of the oldest overseas debutants in the league. In his maiden IPL season, Raza was Punjab Kings’ Swiss Army knife. They batted him in four different positions in seven games depending on whether they needed an extra batter or bowler.He scored 139 runs at an average of 28 with a strike rate of 142. He was most productive in the middle overs, amassing 97 runs at a strike rate of 153.
He bowled an average of two overs in a game, mostly playing the support role. His showing was good enough for Punjab Kings to keep him on their roster.
What Raza’s late-blooming form also did is helped Zimbabwe be back in the international cricket conversation. And while that is great for him and for his country, his raised profile also allows him to get greater resources for his adopted charity, The Centre for Total Transformation.
Raza was already doing what few others did on the field. Even fewer can match him off it.
