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

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

of the

Canadian cricket team The Canada men's national cricket team represents Canada in international cricket. The team is administered by Cricket Canada, which became an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1968. With the United States, Canad ...

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

Early career

He was born in

Muslim Jat Jat Muslim or Musalman Jats (; ), also spelled Jatt or Jutt (), are an elastic and diverse ethnoreligious subgroup of the Jat people, who follow Islam and are native to the northwestern Indian subcontinent. They are primarily found in Sindh an ...

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, a 161 off a scarcely believable 61 balls with eight fours and 15 sixes and an effort of 145 with 15 fours and nine sixes. In 2010, Canada was included in

Caribbean T20 The Caribbean Twenty20 was an annual tournament Twenty20 cricket tournament in the West Indies that was held four times from 2010 to 2013. The top performing domestic team qualified for the Champions League Twenty20 tournament. It was replaced by ...

, the T20 tournament in the West Indies. Due to

Ashish Bagai Ashish Bagai (born 26 January 1982) is a former cricketer and captain of the Canada national cricket team. He was a right-handed batsman who specialised as a wicket-keeper. Early life He studied at St. Columba's School during his brief stay ...

’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 Hampshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Hampshire. Hampshire teams formed by earlier organisations, principa ...

. He has also made the shortlist for the 2010 IPL 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 professional Twenty20 cricket tournament that is 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 ...

tournament. In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Vancouver Knights franchise team in the

2019 Global T20 Canada The 2019 Global T20 Canada was the second edition of the Global T20 Canada, a professional Twenty20 cricket tournament that was played at the CAA Centre, Brampton in Ontario, Canada. It started on 25 July 2019, and concluded with the final on ...

tournament. In June 2021, he was selected to take part in the

Minor League Cricket Minor League Cricket (MiLC) is a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket league in the United States that serves as the Minor league, developmental league for Major League Cricket (MLC). The league comprises 26 teams, divided between the Atlanti ...

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 the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

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'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 W ...

. 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 men's national cricket team (), usually referred as "The Flying Dutchmen" is a team that represents the Netherlands in men's international cricket and is administered by the Royal Dutch Cricket Association. Cricket has been pl ...

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 administe ...

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 (, ; born 30 June 1969), is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, captain, cricket administrator and coach. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest all rounders ever to play in ODI cricket. A left arm orthodox sp ...

Shahid Afridi Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi (, ; born 1 March 197is a Pakistani former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. An all-rounder, Afridi was a right-handed leg spinner and a right-handed batsman. Afridi made ...

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 () (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 Osmani Stadium, an inte ...

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 The 2019 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament held during October and November 2019 in the United Arab Emirates to determine the teams that would qualify for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament. The six teams finis ...

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 Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

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 Bangladesh, while the latter hosted World Cup matches for the first time. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by six wickets in the 2 ...

. 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 the 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 Tw ...

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

where Canada finish Sixth in the tournament.

References

External links

* 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 Expatriate cricketers in Bangladesh Cricketers from Gujrat Pakistani cricketers Canadian sportspeople of Pakistani descent {{Pakistan-cricket-bio-stub