Moises Henriques has been named to captain Portugal in upcoming qualifying matches for the T20 World Cup after announcing his retirement from Australian cricket last month. The 39-year-old called an end to his career in Australia after not being offered a new contract by the Sydney Sixers.
The all-rounder had offers from other BBL franchises, but opted to retire out of loyalty to the Sixers and NSW cricket. Henriques played four Tests, 16 one-day internationals and 24 T20 internationals for Australia, but this week he officially switched his allegiances to Portugal.
Moises Henriques played 44 matches for Australia across all formats. Image: Getty
Henriques was born in Madeira – the Portuguese island off the coast of Morocco – before his family moved to Australia when he was young. The veteran will now honour his heritage as he strives to help Portugal qualify for the T20 World Cup.
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Ranked 37th in the world in T20, Portugal will play Israel, Germany, Greece and Czechia in Group B of the Europe sub-regional qualifiers between August 14 and 20. The winner of the group will then face the winner of Group A in the final on August 21.
Whoever wins that contest will advance to the European regional final alongside Scotland, Jersey and Denmark, and the top two teams will then play off for a spot at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2028.
Moises Henriques retired after he wasn’t offered a new contract by the Sydney Sixers. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Moises Henriques retired from Australian cricket
Henriques played 131 first-class and 141 List A games for NSW, as well as featuring in 154 matches for the Sixers in the BBL. His combined 426 games in domestic cricket is the most of all time by an Australian.
He won 14 domestic titles across his career with NSW and the Sixers, scoring over 13,000 runs and taking more than 200 wickets in all formats combined. He’ll continue to play franchise cricket around the world and currently holds a contract with Glasgow Cosmic for the inaugural season of the European T20 Premier League.
Portugal squad for T20 World Cup qualifiers:
Moises Henriques (c), Craig Cachopa, Edward Fleming, Christopher de Freitas, Rahulkumar Hashu, Siraj Ullah Khadem, Hardeep Khuttan, Jeremy Martins, Dhavalkumar Norotam (wk), Jordan Netto, Carlos Nunes, Sebastian de Oliveira, Upen Shantu, Cameron Shekleton.