Sikandar Raza wants to open doors for other Zimbabwe players to feature in SA20

Playing for the Paarl Royals, Raza made his debut in South Africa's franchise tournament at Boland Park last Friday and took 3-27 to help his team to a thrilling one-run victory over Western Cape neighbours MI Cape Town.

The Zimbabwe allrounder followed that up with an even better performance in the reverse fixture at Newlands on Sunday, taking 4-13 as the Royals completed the double in the Cape derby with a thumping seven-wicket win.

Raza is the only Zimbabwe international that features regularly in T20 leagues around world, having played in the IPL, CPL and just finished a stint in the ILT20, and says he is still learning and growing his game, even at the age of 39.

"The standard of this league (SA20) is pretty high. It is great for my own cricket growth and development," Raza said.

"I always believe once a Zimbabwean goes somewhere, he tries to open doors for other Zimbabweans and I hope that is the case here.

"There hasn't been any Zimbabwean that has played for SA T20 in the previous three years."

Paarl Royals captain and Proteas veteran David Miller is certainly glad to have the Zimbabwe international in his corner.

The Royals have assembled a young squad compared to the other five teams in the tournament and Raza's experience has already been felt in the short time he has been in South Africa.

"Raza's been amazing around the group," Miller said. "I have always watched his career from afar and loved the way he plays the game.

"He always wants to be part of the game - with the ball, in the field, I've seen him bat from 1-6 in the order...

"He is a player that has has just fitted in perfectly with us. At the ripe age of 39 he is running around with enthusiasm and bringing a lot of energy to the young guys.

"He has got a great cricket brain as well so it's nice for me to have all the experience on the field, off the field helping the youngsters with different options, batters and bowlers.

"So yeah he has been huge for us in our last couple of games."

Raza was named captain of Zimbabwe's squad that will compete at the upcoming T20 World Cup that will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka starting on 7 February.

Zimbabwe have been drawn in Group B, alongside Australia, Ireland, Oman and co-hosts Sri Lanka in the global tournament.

Raza added: "The way I look at it, eventually you're going to come across a few players (in T20 leagues) that you're going to be playing against at the World Cup.

"So as much as they'll try and find things about you, you'll also try and find things about them. It's also just for the cricketing growth and confidence to play in such a major league, and to see if you can have a good tour as well just before the World Cup.

"Cricket is very much a confidence game and if you can take that confidence and the knowledge about certain players and conditions and share that with the fellow Zimbabweans, then they're not starting from scratch, they have something to build on. They don't have to start from zero."

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