MUMBAI: Having scored 93 off just 70 balls against England in a warm-up game, Canadian all-rounder Rizwan Cheema is itching to show his big-hitting prowess in the World Cup.
\n“I am seeing the ball well and I know how to hit and all. I am definitely looking forward to the next two games,” the 32-year old said on the sidelines of a promotional event for Base Batteries.
\nThough he is yet to set the stadiums alight with his pyrotechnics in the megaevent, the Karachi-born Cheema, who has scored 74 runs and taken six wickets in four matches so far, said he was happy with his performance so far.
\n“”(I am) happy (with my performance) till now. I am not just only a batsman but also bowl 10 overs. Whatever my team needs I am doing,” he said.
\nCheema, who used to drive a taxi to support his passion and now runs his own business, said he was eyeing T20 leagues around the world as his game suited the shortest format of the game.
\n“My game is different and suits the T20 version. I do surely have IPL dreams. If any opportunity comes through, be it in London, or any other part of the worldm, I’m willing to play,” he added.
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\nCheema, an admirer of former Pakistan all-rounder Imran Khan, said though a victory against the country of his birth would have been great, he did not regret the team’s failure to defeat Pakistan after bundling them out for a meagre 184. <\/p>\n
“Had we won against Pakistan, I wouldn’t have slept till now. I know that it would have been a huge thing. Our team did very well against Pakistan and won against Kenya. So we are looking forward to the game against New Zealand,” he added. <\/p>\n
Pacer Henry Osinde, who was named the Man of the match for his figures of 4\/26 during his team’s five-wicket win over Kenya, said he became a fast bowler due to his height. <\/p>\n
“I was playing basketball initially. I started playing cricket only when I was 17. I went to the University in Uganda and apparently cricket was the most popular sport at that time. Basketball wasn’t. I started with bowling and I was advised to get into bowling. Height advantage – always had height advantage in every sport. Bowling, batting it gave me leverage,” said Osinde, who idolises West Indian great Curtly Ambrose for his consistency. <\/p>\n
Unlike Cheema, the 32-year-old Osinde said he had no ambitions of playing in the IPL and wanted to take up coaching in the future. <\/p>\n
“IPL dreams – not really. I am not very ambitious. I am happy the way things are going for me. I would love to coach local cricketers in Canada when I stop playing. I would give another 3-4 years to playing cricket,” he said. <\/p>\n
While rating Canada higher among other associate teams, Osinde said the game could be popularised in the country through better marketing and good infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MUMBAI: Having scored 93 off just 70 balls against England in a warm-up game, Canadian all-rounder Rizwan Cheema is itching to show his big-hitting prowess in the World Cup. “I am seeing the ball well and I know how to hit and all. I am definitely looking forward to the next two games,” the 32-year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1383,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions\/1383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}