Sikandar Raza Butt (; born 24 April 1986) is a Pakistani-born Zimbabwean international cricketer, who plays all formats primarily as a batter. Born in Sialkot, Raza emigrated to Zimbabwe in 2002 along with his family. He soon became one of the best batsman in the domestic competition and caught the eye of the Zimbabwe selectors. The only problem was citizenship issues, which was granted in 2011. Early life Raza was born in Sialkot to a Punjabi speaking Kashmiri family. He studied at the Pakistan Air Force Public School Lower Topa for three years and aspired to be a Pakistan Air Force pilot, but his dreams were cut short when he failed a vision test that was mandatory for selection in the Pakistan airforce at that time. In 2002, Raza moved with his family to Zimbabwe. He went to Scotland, where he pursued a bachelor's degree in software engineering at the Glasgow Caledonian University. It was here where Raza played semi-professional cricket, realising his potential. Domestic and T20 franchise career After the revamping of Zimbabwe's domestic structure in 2009, Raza went on to play first-class cricket for the Mashonaland Eagles. He made his first-class debut on 12 April 2007 for Northerns against Easterns during the 2007 Logan Cup. He is a successful first-class cricketer, with a top score of 146. Raza also played List A cricket originally for Northerns but later switched to play for Mashonaland Eagles. He made his List A debut in 2007. He made his Twenty20 debut for the Southern Rocks in 2010 against the Desert Vipers. Raza turned out to be a T20 specialist, and was the leading run-scorer in the 2010 Stanbic Bank T20 Competition. In the Metbank Pro40 Championship Final in 2010, Raza scored a brilliant 44 for Southern Rocks as they cruised to the title against Mid West Rhinos. It was his first big performance that caught the selectorial eye. In January 2011, he achieved his career best List-A score of 80 runs. Raza's performances earned him a place in the preliminary squad for Zimbabwe's 2011 Cricket World Cup campaign, but did not make it to the final 15 man squad. By then, he had another fine performance, at the Masvingo Sports Club, where his opening stand of 161 with Chamu Chibhabha, simply by bludgeoning the Matabeleland Tuskers bowlers, led the foundation for a massive Southern Rocks victory. This made the Zimbabwean selectors select