Introducing yourself to new work colleagues is never easy. All the more so, presumably, for a cricket coach who has grown up beyond sport’s mainstream but suddenly finds himself having to fit in among some of the biggest stars in the women’s game.
Ahmed Raza is on the coaching staff of Southern Brave in the Hundred in the UK this summer.
It means the former UAE coach is working with the likes of Indian superstar Jemimah Rodrigues and multiple world title winning Australia captain Sophie Molineux.
“Having not worked in a franchise environment in the women's game, I was a complete stranger to all of them,” Raza said.
“It’s not just about not being a household name, but it's also coming from an Associate country, where you are always proving yourself – not just as a cricketer, even as a coach.
“Then you have to literally sit across a table and sell yourself so that when you're chatting about spin-bowling, they buy into it.
“For a starter, I'm pretty sure no one really had a clue who Ahmed Raza is, unless someone did their homework or looked deeply into it.”
But there was that one time he got himself noticed beyond the usual parameters of UAE women’s cricket.
When Jonathan Batty, Brave’s head coach, invited his staff to each reveal some trivia about themselves at the team’s induction, Raza knew exactly what to say.
“We all got together and he asked us to introduce ourselves, and share a fun fact,” Raza said.
“It was just to break the ice, to let the group know who you are, where you come from. I had '10 retired players' up my sleeve, so I had to play that card.”
Raza made global cricket headlines last year when he used an outlandish tactic of retiring all 10 batters to try to win a rain affected fixture with the UAE – successfully, as it turned out.
He is in a minority of one among UAE coaches – men’s or women’s – who have garnered such attention, and caused cricket’s lawmakers to consider a rule change in the process.
That fun fact brought him a little instant kudos with his new team as it revealed a fertile cricket brain.
He is loving the tactical peculiarities of the Hundred – which is played in sets of five balls, rather than overs of six, and has plenty more intricacies besides.
Many observers remain nonplussed by the merits of the Hundred ball format. Raza, though, finds it fascinating.
“Sophie [Molineux, Brave’s captain] is tactically so astute it's unbelievable,” he said. “It's just a treat to watch her operating like that from the dugout.”
Having resigned from coaching the UAE women’s side earlier this year, Raza later took up the short-term role coaching at the Hundred.
He stepped down from a job he loved for family reasons. His wife, Mehreen, is expecting their second child in October, and he was wary of spending too much time away from his young family because of touring life.
He is grateful for the faith shown in him again by the GMR group – the company who oversees the running of a set of teams around the world, starting with Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League.
Raza had been head coach of their Dubai Capitals side at the Global Super League in Guyana last year. That is a rare show of faith in someone from a non-Test playing nation.
His heart remains with UAE cricket. It is part of the reason he has stepped away from full-time employment, after 21 years as a central cog of the game in the Emirates, at this point in his career.
He wants to broaden his horizons with other coaching gigs around the world – ideally in full Test playing countries – so he can come armed with new ideas to help push UAE cricket forward if he is ever asked for his input again in the future.
“It's been an unbelievable experience,” Raza said of the Hundred. “It’s also a reality check where how far behind Associate cricket is.
“Whatever I've learnt here, I'll definitely take it back to whatever environment I go into.
“I'm based in UAE, so if and whenever UAE requires me, I'll be there. I'm sure with this experience I can give so much more to the environments I can go into, especially in a tier of the game which is coming up.”
The highlight of his time in the UK came on Saturday, when Brave beat London Spirit while playing at Lord’s.
As a UAE player, he never got the chance to play at the home of cricket – even if he did get to train there with Australia in 2019.
Saturday’s fixture might even have been a UAE double. Mahika Gaur, the former UAE fast-bowler who learnt cricket in Dubai, signed for London Spirit ahead of this season.
She was in the dugout for Saturday’s game, albeit on crutches as a result of the foot injury that has stopped her from playing in the Hundred this season.
“I had never played [at Lord’s] as a cricketer, which was very unfortunate but I did train there seven years ago,” Raza said.
“So, I had been to the Long Room, I had been to the dressing rooms, and in the nets, but being part of a game at Lord’s is unbelievable.
“Life works in mysterious ways. It’s a place where any cricketer would die to play. I couldn't do it as a cricketer, but I managed to do it as a coach. It was a very humbling experience and I am grateful.”
