A World Cup at home before retiring from international cricket will be a “blessing” for Sikandar Raza even though, he feels, Zimbabwe are unlikely to get much home advantage at an ICC tournament. Zimbabwe, one of three hosts for the 2027 ODI World Cup with South Africa and Namibia, will play all their league matches in Harare, Bulawayo and the new venue in Victoria Falls.
“Every cricketer dreams of having retired or to retire after a World Cup,” Raza, who turned 40 this year, said at the launch of a mobile cricket game, “SIXR”, on Tuesday. “The fact that I am coming to the end of my career as well, so to have an opportunity to play a home World Cup is certainly a blessing for me from personal point of view.
“From a collective point of view, I do think the world really needs to see what Africa has to offer – the beauty, the crowd, and the vibe and everything that we have to offer in Zimbabwe, especially. The world deserves to see it. For people who will find time to travel to Zimbabwe to watch the World Cup, it will be an unforgettable experience.”
Raza, the Zimbabwe captain, also gave his thumbs-up to the format of the World Cup, where one team moves up from the first round, which will pit three teams, and joins the top 11 in two groups of six, followed by the Super Seven and finally the knockouts.
“I quite like the Super Seven idea. I think the teams that play well deserve to have more games at the World Cup,” he said. “When it comes to Zimbabwe and the fixtures, if you look at our FTP, our board has done really well to find fixtures from here and there outside our FTP programme as well. Zimbabwe Cricket has gone up and beyond for their players to play more games to be ready for whichever fixture.”