Raza visits Mnangagwa at State House; presents him with his jersey
Zimbabwe cricket team all-rounder Sikandar Raza took some time off the pitch on Tuesday to pay a courtesy call on President Emmerson Mnangagwa at State House in Harare.
The visit was confirmed by the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services’ Permanent Secretary Ndabaningi Nick Mangwana through his official Twitter account.
“Raza is one of our best. Thank you for doing wonders for Zimbabwe @SRazaB24,” tweeted Mangwana.
His tweet was captioned with a photo of Mnangagwa and Raza posing together during a Kodak moment holding the latter’s national cricket team jersey.
The visit comes a day after Raza was named in the ICC Men’s T20 team of the Year for 2022 following illustrious performances in many games last year.
Raza has become the latest professional athlete in Zimbabwe in recent years to visit Mnangagwa at State House.
Out of favour Aston Villa midfielder Marvelous Nakamba, on loan Real Mallorca striker Tino Kadewere and boxer Charles Manyuchi are some of the sportsmen who have visited Mnangagwa at State House.
However, similar to Kadewere as well as Nakamba’s visits to State House, the Pakistan born cricketer’s trip has been met with mixed feelings amongst superstitious Zimbabweans who now believe visiting Mnangagwa brings bad luck for an athletes career.
Nakamba and Kadewere’s careers have since taken a downturn after they individually visited and posed for pictures with the President.
On his birthday last week, Nakamba was told by Villa coach Unai Emery to leave the club, while Kadewere is now in Spain after his parent club Olympique Lyonnias opted to send him out on loan to Mallorca, where he immediately suffered an injury just before he was to make his La Liga debut.
Kadewere has since recovered from the injury.
