Ahmed Raza ( ur, ; born 10 October 1988) is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays for the United Arab Emirates national cricket team. Raza is a right-handed batsman who bowls slow left-arm orthodox.

Personal life

Raza was born and raised in Sharjah, the youngest of four siblings. He is the son of Pakistani parents Shamim and Syed Zahid Kazmi. His father ran a plumbing business in Sharjah, having immigrated to the UAE in 1972 to work as an electrical engineer. Raza was employed by United Bank Limited. He married business analyst Mehreen Tahir in 2021.

Junior career

Raza started playing

street cricket A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, ...

at a young age and joined

Shahzad Altaf Shahzad Altaf Hussain (born 6 October 1957) is a Pakistani-born cricketer who played for the United Arab Emirates national cricket team between 1994 and 1998. He played as a right-arm pace bowler, and opened the bowling in two matches at the 1 ...

's cricket academy at the age of 13. He began as a left-arm fast bowler, modelling his technique on Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram, but switched to left-arm spin as a teenager. He failed to make the national under-15 squad, but in 2004 represented the UAE at the Under-17 Asia Cup in India.

International career

Raza made his List-A debut against India A in 2006. In 2007 Raza made his first-class debut against Scotland in the 2006 ICC Intercontinental Cup. In the

2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup The 2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup was played between 22 and 30 November 2009 in the United Arab Emirates. The twelve competing teams were: Afghanistan, Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the UAE. ...

Raza was the UAE's joint leading wicket taker with twelve wickets along with Moiz Shahid. In March 2013, Raza was named as the caretaker captain of the UAE for the 2013 ACC Twenty20 Cup in Nepal. In September 2013 he took career-best figures of 7/37 against Namibia in the 2011-13 ICC Intercontinental Cup. In January 2018, he was named in the United Arab Emirates' squad for the

2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two was a cricket tournament that took place in February 2018 in Namibia. The United Arab Emirates won the tournament, after beating Nepal by 7 runs in the final. Canada and Namibia finished third and fourth ...

tournament. In August 2018, he was named in the United Arab Emirates' squad for the

2018 Asia Cup Qualifier The 2018 Asia Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that was held in Malaysia from 29 August to 6 September 2018. The event served as the qualifier for the 2018 Asia Cup. The top two teams from the group stage met in the final, with the winner ...

tournament. Despite the UAE losing the final to Hong Kong, he was named the player of the tournament, after taking sixteen wickets. In December 2018, he was named in the United Arab Emirates' team for the

2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup The 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the third edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held in Karachi, Pakistan and Colombo, Sri Lanka. Eight teams participated in the tournament including five under-23 age level teams of Test nations and ...

. He was the leading wicket-taker for the United Arab Emirates in the tournament, with six dismissals in three matches. Later the same month, he was one of three players to be given an eight-week ban from international cricket for breaching the Emirates Cricket Board's Player's Code of Conduct, after using Twitter to criticise the facilities in Karachi during the tournament. In January 2019, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had accepted apologies from all the cricketers involved. In March 2019, he returned to the UAE's squad following his suspension for their series against the United States. In mid-2019, while on holiday in the United Kingdom, Raza was asked to train with Australia prior to the second Test of the

2019 Ashes series The 2019 Ashes series (officially the Specsavers Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was a series of Test cricket matches played between England and Australia for The Ashes in August and September 2019. The venues were Edgbaston, Lord's, Hea ...

at Lord's, to prepare their batsmen to face left-arm spinner Jack Leach. He had earlier been a net bowler for Australia during the series against Pakistan in the UAE in March 2019. In September 2019, he was named in the United Arab Emirates' squad for the

2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier The 2019 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament held during October and November 2019 in the United Arab Emirates to determine which teams would qualify for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament. The six teams finishing ...

tournament in the UAE. However, prior to the tournament, he replaced

Mohammad Naveed Mohammad Naveed (born 3 June 1987) is a cricketer who played for the United Arab Emirates national cricket team. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut for the United Arab Emirates against Afghanistan on 2 May 2014. He made his Twenty20 In ...

as captain, after Naveed was withdrawn from the squad. In December 2019, he was named as the captain of the ODI squad for the

2019 United Arab Emirates Tri-Nation Series The 2019 United Arab Emirates Tri-Nation Series was the third round of the 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 cricket tournament and took place in the United Arab Emirates in December 2019. It was a tri-nation series between Scotland, th ...

. In January 2020, in the fourth match of the

2020 Oman Tri-Nation Series The 2020 Oman Tri-Nation Series was the fourth round of the 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 cricket tournament and took place in Oman in January 2020. It was a tri-nation series between Oman, Namibia and the United Arab Emirates cricke ...

against Namibia, he took his first

five-wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Takin ...

in ODI cricket. In December 2020, he was one of ten cricketers to be awarded with a year-long full-time contract by the Emirates Cricket Board.

Franchise career

On 3 June 2018, he was selected to play for the Edmonton Royals in the players' draft for the inaugural edition of the

Global T20 Canada The Global T20 Canada is a 20-over cricket tournament played in Canada. The first edition of the tournament took place during June and July 2018 with six teams competing. Each team featured four local Canadian cricketers in each squad, along w ...

tournament. Raza played for the Karnataka Tuskers in the

2019 T10 League 2019 Abu Dhabi T10 was the third season of the Abu Dhabi T10. The matches had a 10-over-a-side format with a time duration of 90 minutes. The tournament was played as a round robin followed by semifinals and the final. It was played from 15 to 24 ...

References

External links

Ahmed Raza
on CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Raza, Ahmed 1988 births Living people Emirati cricketers United Arab Emirates One Day International cricketers United Arab Emirates Twenty20 International cricketers People from the Emirate of Sharjah Emirati cricket captains Pakistani expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates