Henriques chasing ‘cricket nirvana’ with PortugalImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Moises Henriques retired from Australian domestic cricket in July after making 420 appearances across all formatsByTimothy AbrahamBBC Sport journalistPublished1 hour agoMoises Henriques says helping Portugal qualify for their first-ever men’s T20 World Cup would be cricket “nirvana” at the twilight of his playing career.Henriques played four Tests, 16 one-day internationals and 24 T20s for Australia between 2009 and 2021.The 39-year-old has switched allegiances to Portugal, the country of his birth, and will captain the team at a European sub-regional qualifying tournament in Finland starting on Friday.Italy played at their maiden T20 World Cup earlier this year having started their campaign at the same level as Portugal.
Henriques mentioned he “didn’t even know Portugal had a cricket team” until five years ago but has been impressed by the quality of their squad.
“Obviously, the ideal, the nirvana, would be to replicate what Italy have done,” Henriques told the BBC Stumped podcast.
“Whether that’s realistic for this World Cup, or the following, I don’t know. We’ll only be able to tell in a couple games.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of opposition that feel that they might be able to do something similar.”
Henriques was born in Funchal on the island of Madeira but arrived in Australia aged two when his father Alvaro decided to up sticks and move the family to Sydney in search of a better life.
Alvaro, who played second division football in Portugal, took a job working in a warehouse, where he is still employed today.
Moises and his two younger brothers threw themselves into the Australian way of life, and that meant cricket.
“Moises isn’t the most common name going around in an Australian school, especially at that time,” Henriques explained.
“I had a few issues at school early on. I didn’t speak English that well.
“Cricket gave me that little bit of confidence I probably needed as a kid to feel a part of something.”
