Ahmed Raza will put friendship aside for a few hours when he faces his UAE team-mates in the Global T20 Canada on Saturday evening.
Raza and UAE star Shaiman Anwar, who are part of the Edmonton Royals’ squad, will come up against compatriots Rohan Mustafa and Mohammad Naveed in their game against Toronto Nationals.
Raza, 29, is no stranger to facing his international team-mates after playing against them in domestic games in the UAE. But with a bigger stage, an array of world-class internationals and a trophy up for grabs, Raza knows it will be a lot different to what their previous encounters used to be.
“It will be exciting to play against them, that’s for sure,” the spinner said. “We have played each other in the Inter-Emirates tournament and always played against each other in different events in the UAE. With us knowing how each other work, it could work in our favour and the same for them.
“It would be a different experience to what we are used to. It’s a chance to be spilling the beans to my team-mates about Naveed and Rohan’s skills but overall it will be a good experience and an exciting one.”
Off to Toronto 🇨🇦 to take part in @gt20canada with my UAE teammates @rohanmustafa88 @nidofaster #edmontonroyals #uaecricket🇦🇪 pic.twitter.com/E1Y4O4pY7e
— Ahmedrazauae (@ahmedrazauae) June 27, 2018
The UAE quartet faced a race to actually be in time for the start of the tournament after their visas were still being processed.
After more than a week, Raza, Naveed and Mustafa were finally issued their visa on Wednesday afternoon and later boarded a flight from Dubai to Toronto later that evening. Anwar flew to Canada the following day on Thursday.
Raza admitted it was a ‘stressful’ couple of days waiting to find out if their visas would be issued, but is happy not to miss any games at all in North America.
“Obviously it is a very big relief as it’s been a stressful week for all of us here,” he said. “Luckily, everything got done just in time so we are ready to depart for Canada.”
For Naveed, just hours after making the long 14-hour flight, the pacer shrugged off the jet lag and was part of Toronto’s starting 11 which beat Vancouver Knights by six wickets.
The 31-year-old was far from his best with figures of 0-60 but former Australian skipper Steve Smith’s 61 and Anton Devcich’s 92 saw them win with four balls to spare.
