Rizwan Ahmed Cheema (born 15 August 1978) is a former

cricketer 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 ...

of the

Canadian cricket team The Canada national cricket team represents Canada in international cricket. The team is organised by Cricket Canada, which became an Associate Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1968. With the United States, Canada was one ...

. Cheema is a big-hitting batsman who also bowls some medium pace.

Early career

He was born in

Muslim Jat Jat Muslim or Musalman Jat also spelled Jutt ( ur, ) (also spelled Jatt or Jutt; ) are a sub-group of the Jat people, who are followers of Islam and are primarily native to the Punjab region, Gujarat Region or Northern regions of the Indian ...

family in Pakistan. Cheema moved to Canada in the early 2000s and had only ever played cricket at club level but his heavy hitting caught attention in the Toronto and District Cricket Association league.

Domestic and T20 franchise career

He turned in a noteworthy season in 2005, scoring 627 runs in 14 matches at just under 50, and taking 24 wickets at 13.12. After a disappointing 2006, Cheema established himself as the league's most dangerous batsman the following year with two big hundreds 161 off a scarcely believable 61 balls with eight fours with 15 sixes and an effort of 145 with 15 fours and nine sixes. In 2010, Canada was included in Caribbean T20, the T20 tournament in the West Indies. Due to

Ashish Bagai Ashish Bagai (born 26 January 1982) is the former captain of the Canadian cricket team. He is a right-handed batsman who specialises as a wicketkeeper. Early life He studied at St. Columba's School during his brief stay in Delhi, India. He ...

’s injury, Cheema was named as captain for the tournament which also involves seven teams from the Caribbean. His Canadian team surprised everyone by winning a stirring encounter with England domestic Twenty20 Champions Hampshire cricket club. He has also made the shortlist for the 2010

IPL The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

contract auction; he is one of 51 people to do so from an original list of 97. On 3 June 2018, he was selected to play for the Winnipeg Hawks 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 wi ...

tournament. In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Vancouver Knights franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament. In June 2021, he was selected to take part in the

Minor League Cricket Minor League Cricket (branded as the Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship presented by Sling TV for sponsorship reasons, and sometimes shortened to MiLC) is an American Twenty20 cricket developmental league for Major League Cricket which com ...

tournament in the United States following the players' draft.

International career

Cheema made his international debut at the age of 30 in the Scotia Bank ODI series in King City,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

in August 2008. Cheema came to notice with a 61-ball 89 against West Indies in his second ODI and in the same match also took 3 for 31 in 10 overs which was over shadowed by

West Indies cricket team The West Indies cricket team, nicknamed the Windies, is a multi-national men's cricket team representing the mainly Commonwealth Caribbean, English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean region and administered by Cricket West I ...

's 303 for 4 which includes century by

Xavier Marshall Xavier Melbourne Marshall (born 27 March 1986) is a Jamaican-American cricketer. He played for the West Indies as a batsman. Since January 2019, he has represented the United States cricket team. International career Marshall represented the We ...

. He followed that up with 61 off 45 balls against the same opposition two days later. He narrowly misses out in a maiden ODI hundred against

Netherlands cricket team The Netherlands national cricket team (Dutch: Nederlandse cricket team) is the men's team that represents the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is administered by the Royal Dutch Cricket Association. Cricket has been played in the Netherlands si ...

in July 2009. Later that month Cheema was one of six players awarded central contracts as

Cricket Canada Cricket Canada, known as the Canadian Cricket Association (CCA) until November 2007, is the Sport governing body, governing body of cricket in Canada. It was established in 1892 and has its current headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. It administ ...

sought to professionalise its structures. His in ODI is 114.94 which is the top ten list of the highest number of strike rate. In the Canada T20 tournament, in October 2008, he hit ten sixes, more than either

Sanath Jayasuriya Deshabandu Sanath Teran Jayasuriya ( si, සනත් ජයසූරිය, ta, சனத் ஜெயசூர்யா; born 30 June 1969), is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a captain. He is credited for having revolutionized one-day in ...

Shahid Afridi Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi ( ur, شاہد افریدی‎, ps, شاهد افریدی; born 1 March 1977), known as Shahid Afridi, is a Pakistani former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. He is current ...

and was his team's top run-getter, averaging over 60 in the series. He scored 68 off 43 balls against Sri Lanka in his third game. Cheema was one of the four, Canadian Cricketer who face visa problem before the World Cup. Cheema hit a fluent 93 from 70 balls from No. 7 at

Fatullah Fatullah ( bn, ফতুল্লা) (also known as Fatulla) is a town and a Union in Narayanganj Sadar Upazila in Narayanganj District. It is located on the southern outskirts of Dhaka, in central Bangladesh. It is the location of the Fatulla ...

in a warm cup game against England. In September 2018, he was named in Canada's squad for the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 Americas Qualifier tournament. In August 2019, he was named in Canada's squad for the Regional Finals of the 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier tournament. In October 2019, he was named in Canada's squad for the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier tournament in the United Arab Emirates.

Captaincy career

Cheema was named

’s deputy for the Canada Tour of Sri Lanka in 2009. He was appointed captain of the national side for the ICC America's Division One Championship 2009/10 in

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

in Ashish Bagai's absence that has been rested ahead of what is to be a gruelling push to the

2011 Cricket World Cup The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and for the first time in Bangladesh. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, thus ...

. He was appointed as full-time captain of Canada in 2012 where he leads them in

2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier The 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier was played in early 2012 as a part of ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier series. This edition of the qualifier for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 was an expanded version comprising ten qualifiers from regional Twenty ...

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

where Canada finish Sixth in the tournament.https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-world-twenty20-qualifier-2011-12-532912/canada-vs-scotland-68th-match-5th-place-play-off-546473/live-cricket-score

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheema, Rizwan 1978 births Canadian cricketers Canada One Day International cricketers Canada Twenty20 International cricketers Living people Pakistani emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup Rajshahi Royals cricketers Cricketers from Gujrat Pakistani cricketers Canadian sportspeople of Pakistani descent