Exclusive: The world is our stage now, says UAE captain Ahmed Raza

In the autumn of 2019, Ahmed Raza was gutted after the UAE’s inauspicious campaign in the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifiers on home soil.

The left-arm spinner wanted to make his cancer-stricken father proud after being entrusted with the responsibility of guiding the UAE’s fortunes as captain.

A year later, Syed Zahid Kazmi, Raza’s father who had introduced him to cricket, lost his brave battle with cancer.

But having imbibed an unflinching spirit from his father who was a huge admirer of Javed Miandad and Imran Khan, Raza eventually helped build a culture of winning in the UAE dressing room.

Now it’s that culture that saw UAE romp through the recent T20 World Cup qualifiers in Oman to earn their place at the 2022 World Cup in Australia.

But Raza, 33, is not happy with a mere slot in T20 cricket’s showpiece event. He wants his team to make a statement on the world stage.

The aim, he says, will be to qualify for the Super 12 stage and cause a few upset against the heavyweights in Australia — a country where Imran Khan and Javed Miandad, his late father’s heroes, had famously helped Pakistan stage the greatest fightback in World Cup history.

The UAE have qualified for the World Cup only thrice in the past (1996 and 2015 50 Overs World Cups and 2014 T20 World Cup). Is it the start of a new era in UAE cricket?

The first goal that we had set, we have achieved that. But this team has a lot more to achieve. This was probably the first big achievement we have got. But this is only the beginning. I mean now the world is our stage, we can only get better and keep showing the world what this team is made of.

This team has a very good blend of experience and youth. It has got seasoned players like you, Chirag Suri, Zahoor Khan, Rohan Mustafa and then promising youngsters like Karthik Meiyappan and Vriitya Aravind who was the player of the tournament in the qualifiers with 267 runs…

That was the mantra of our team. It was such a beautiful mix of youth and experience because you get freedom and flamboyance from the youth, there is no baggage of previous events. Then when the ship is not steady, you have the experience to hold things together. Also, the average age of the team is I think 27 or 28. The best part about our youngsters is that they are our homegrown products, Vriitya, Karthik, Alishan (Sharafu). They have played the under 16s, the under 19s. It’s such a satisfying feeling that they have come through the system and now they are performing and winning games for UAE.

Vriitya Aravind is only 20, but the maturity he showed in the qualifying tournament was amazing. How good is he?

I call him the wonderkid and I am very close to him as well despite our age difference. He is a special player. The best thing about him is about the clarity that he has when he goes into bat, whatever the situation is. He is always clear in his head, what he wants to achieve. He is never fazed by the cameras, or the opponents, if it’s a Test-playing nation, if it’s a semifinal, whatever it is, he is never fazed by that. And that is a great thing to have, especially for someone who is so young. He is a great player and he has got a great future ahead of him. He is also a very humble kid. His knowledge of the game, his homework, I think that is second to none. And that obviously has played a part in his success.

The T20 World Cup qualification must be such an emotional moment for you personally…

It means the world to me because we didn’t qualify in 2019. That was the time when my father was fighting cancer. In my head, I was like, ‘I will qualify, I will take this team to the World Cup and my father will be so proud’. But unfortunately, that couldn’t happen. My father passed away and then there was this event and, you know, it was like I have to do it for him, I have to do it for my family. But I think if I take the credit for all, it just doesn’t seem right, but, you know, it goes to the decision-makers. I only got the captaincy before the T20 World Cup qualifiers in 2019, but they stuck with me for another two years even after the failure of 2019. They had a vision. The head coach (Robin Singh), the selectors, Mubashshir Sir (Mubashshir Usmani, General Secretary at Emirates Cricket Board), they all stuck with me and we got the reward.

Robin Singh, the head coach, has made a huge difference since he came on board…

Yes, drastically. I think it boils down to the confidence that he instills in everyone. I mean you won’t see him in the pictures, you won’t see him lifting the trophy, and I don’t think he likes giving interviews as well. That’s the man he is. You know he might not get all the accolades because he is never at the forefront but he played a huge role in our success. He is the man who backed the youngsters with me. We have achieved something really nice. I mean these are the moments you share with people you work with and they stay with you for life. And not only Robin I mean, our analyst Karthik (Rathinam), he stays up all night and gets all the footage, shows us everything, because when you are playing a team like Germany or Bahrain, you have never played with them, so you know, the backroom staff have done so much. These people normally don’t get a lot of accolades, but they richly deserve it. Azhar Qureshi, (trainer), our physio Manish (Pardeshi). I mean it was a long month (in Oman), we played 11 international games. There were niggles here and there, but he did a fantastic job and we were able to field our best eleven in all the 11 games. So these are the people, you know, who might not get all the accolades because they are not at the forefront but they richly deserve it.

The Super 12 stage will be the main target now at the World Cup in Australia…

In T20 cricket, that is our main goal now. But there is plenty ahead of us, this year is going to be very busy, starting with the 50 overs World Cricket League (a qualifying event for the 2023 World Cup) from March 5. First, we need to win those games. We also have the Asia Cup before that which will play a huge role going into the World Cup. We have one more round of qualifiers to play for the Asia Cup, hopefully, we can get through that. So the Asia Cup will play a huge role before the World Cup. Then in the World Cup, getting to the Super 12 is the next goal. We would love to achieve that because we know that once we get to the Super 12, we will get even bigger games. That is an opportunity to make bigger upsets, putting our name out there in the world. Then the next goal is qualifying for the 2023 50 overs World Cup. Now the work will be done towards reaching those goals.