Raza, Taylor in ICC Team of the tourney

Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
SIKANDAR Raza and Brendan Taylor have been voted into the ICC Cricket World Qualifier Team of the Tournament released by the ICC yesterday.

The team, which is captained by West Indies skipper Jason Holder, includes three players each from finalists Afghanistan and the Windies, two from Zimbabwe, two from Scotland and one from Ireland. The side was selected by a jury of cricket experts chaired by former Windies fast bowler, Ian Bishop.

The panel, which included ex-Zimbabwe fast bowler Pommie Mbangwa, Australia’s former women’s World Cup winner Lisa Sthalekar, Ian Callender (Belfast Telegraph) and Liam Brickhill (correspondent, ICC Digital), also chose Raza as the Player of the Tournament.

But the recognition did not cheer the 31-year old as the pain of Zimbabwe’s failure to qualify for the World Cup was still devouring him.

An emotional Raza looked downcast at the presentation ceremony and revealed the award was a painful reminder of the nation’s crushed dreams after Zimbabwe’s World Cup bid was ended by a shock three-run defeat at the hands of the United Arab Emirates in their last match of the qualifiers last week.

“Certainly, not happy at all. I think this trophy will serve as a painful reminder of the dreams that we had and we couldn’t get it done. This trophy will also serve as a reminder for the 15 million dreams that we crushed. It’s certainly quite a tough pill to swallow.

“When I started playing cricket, I thought it was to unite countries, players of different background coming together to play this beautiful sport. Unfortunately, you’ll see that’s not going to happen in next year’’s World Cup.’’ said Raza.

One of the most consistent players during the Qualifier hosted in front of home crowds in Zimbabwe, the all-rounder played a crucial role in the Chevrons’ campaign in which they won five of the seven matches they played.

He scored 319 runs at an average of 53.16.

His overall contributions included one century, two fifties and 15 wickets.

Taylor also made it into the Team of the Tournament after ending as the top run scorer with 457 runs under the belt.

The former Zimbabwe skipper played some important innings which included two hundreds and one fifty.

The 32-year-old opened his account with a hundred in a thumping win over Nepal, scored a brilliant run-a-ball 89 in a low-scoring thriller against Afghanistan and deserved to be on the winning side for his 138 from 124 deliveries in a narrow loss to the Windies.

Windies captain Holder was also inspirational with both bat and ball and his energy in the field was priceless.

Holder scored 219 runs and took 15 wickets in eight matches and inspired his side to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 as well as to the final of the qualifiers which Afghanistan won by seven wickets.

The other players in the line-up include Windies’ Evin Lewis and Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer as openers.

Taylor, Marlon Samuels (Windies) and Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan) form the middle-order while Raza and Najibullah Zadran (Afghanistan) are the all-rounders. Mujeeb Rahman of Afghanistan is a specialist spinner, followed by three fast bowlers – Holder, Safyaan Sharif (Scotland) and Boyd Rankin (Ireland). Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan has been chosen as 12th man.

Team of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 (in batting order):