Nezam Ahmed Hafiz (21 April 1969 – 11 September 2001) was a Guyanese-born American

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. Hafiz was a right-handed middle order

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who bowled right-arm

medium pace Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

. He died in Manhattan during the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

Cricket career

Having played cricket from a young age, Hafiz captained the Guyana Under-19 cricket team in the 1988 Northern Telecom Youth Tournament, a tournament with other under-19 teams from the West Indies. His first match as under-19 captain came against Trinidad and Tobago Under-19s, captained by

Brian Lara Brian Charles Lara, (born 2 May 1969) is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing reco ...

. Hafiz made his first-class debut later that year for

Demerara Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state fro ...

in the final of the 1988/89

Guystac Trophy The Guystac Trophy was a Guyanese inter-county cricket tournament, the final of which had first-class status. The tournament was played annually, the final being usually between Demerara and Berbice Berbice is a region along the Berbice Rive ...

against

Berbice Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the Dutch West India Company and between 1792 to 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom of Great Britain ...

, with the match ending in a draw. His debut for

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

against

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

in that same seasons

Red Stripe Cup The Regional Four Day Competition, formerly known as Shell Shield and Carib Beer Cup, is the first-class cricket competition in the West Indies. It is administered by the Cricket West Indies. In the 2013-2014 season the winner of the tourname ...

. Struggling to find a regular starting place in what was a strong Guyana team of the 1980s and early 1990s, he made four further first-class appearances for Guyana, the last of which came against the

Leeward Islands french: Îles-Sous-le-Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Leeward Islands. Clockwise: Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Saint kitts and Nevis. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth Atlantic Ocean , coor ...

. In his five first-class matches for Guyana, he scored 40 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 10.00, with a high score of 30. He made two

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

appearances for his home country, with both coming in the 1988/89

Geddes Grant Shield The Super50 Cup, currently named the CG Insurance Super50 Cup for sponsorship purposes is the domestic one-day cricket competition in the West Indies. It was previously known as the KFC Cup until the fast food chain pulled out of sponsorship in ...

against the Leeward Islands and the

Windward Islands french: Îles du Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Windward Islands. Clockwise: Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth ...

. He joined his parents and two older sisters in New York in 1992, prior to his departure he donated his cricket equipment to his local cricket club in Georgetown. Following his relocation to the United States, Hafiz went on to play a single List A match for the

United States national cricket team The United States national cricket team is the team that represents the United States in international cricket. The team was formerly organised by the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA), which became an associate member of ...

against the Leeward Islands when the United States were invited to take part in the

1998–99 Red Stripe Bowl The 1998–99 Red Stripe Bowl was the 25th season of what is now the Regional Super50, the domestic limited-overs cricket competition for the countries of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). It ran from 6 to 19 October 1998. Eight teams cont ...

. In his only major appearance for the United States, he was absent hurt in their batting innings. He also toured England with the United States team in 2000.

Death

Hafiz was killed in the

on the

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. He had been working as a financial assistant for insurance company

Marsh and McLennan Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., doing business as Marsh McLennan, is a global professional services firm, headquartered in New York City with businesses in insurance brokerage, risk management, reinsurance services, talent management, investme ...

, whose office was on the 94th floor of Tower One. At the time of his death he was living at

South Ozone Park, Queens South Ozone Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Queens. It is just north of John F. Kennedy International Airport, between Aqueduct Racetrack to the west and the Van Wyck Expressway to the east. Adja ...

. His name is one of the 2,983 names inscribed at the

National September 11 Memorial & Museum The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (also known as the 9/11 Memorial & Museum) is a memorial and museum in New York City commemorating the September 11 attacks of 2001, which killed 2,977 people, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombi ...

at the World Trade Center site. His name can be found on Panel N-6 of the North Pool.

References

External links

Nezam Hafiz
at

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Nezam Hafiz
at CricketArchive * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hafiz, Nezam 1969 births 2001 deaths American Muslims Demerara cricketers Guyanese cricketers American cricketers Guyana cricketers Guyanese emigrants to the United States American people of Indo-Guyanese descent American sportspeople of Guyanese descent American sportspeople of Indian descent Guyanese Muslims Guyanese terrorism victims Victims of the September 11 attacks Terrorism deaths in New York (state) People from East Berbice-Corentyne People murdered in New York City Male murder victims