At 39 years old, fresh off retiring from Australian domestic cricket this past July following a 420-match career across all formats, veteran all-rounder Moises Henriques is embarking on one final, deeply personal cricket adventure. The former Australian international, who earned 44 caps for his adopted country between 2009 and 2021 across Tests, ODIs and T20Is, has switched national allegiances to represent his birth nation Portugal — and he says guiding the small European cricket program to its first-ever men’s T20 World Cup would be the crowning achievement of his late career.
Henriques will lead Portugal as captain at the European sub-regional T20 World Cup qualifier kicking off Friday in Finland, a tournament that marks the first step on the long road to the global showcase. Born in Funchal on Portugal’s Madeira Island, Henriques moved to Sydney with his family at the age of two, when his father — a former second-division Portuguese footballer — relocated to Australia in search of better professional opportunities. Growing up with an unfamiliar given name and limited English skills in his Australian primary school, Henriques credits cricket with helping him find confidence and a sense of belonging, eventually working his way up to the highest level of the sport, wearing Australia’s iconic Baggy Green Test cap.
It has been just five years since Henriques even learned that Portugal fielded a national cricket team, but he says he has been stunned by the depth of talent assembled in the current squad. Henriques pointed to Italy’s run earlier this year, where the European side qualified for their maiden T20 World Cup after starting their campaign at the same sub-regional stage that Portugal enters this week. That precedent is exactly what he is targeting, he told the BBC Stumped podcast in an interview.
“Obviously, the ideal, the nirvana, would be to replicate what Italy have done,” Henriques said. “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 of games. I’m sure there’s a lot of opposition that feel that they might be able to do something similar.”
Portugal, currently ranked 37th in the global T20 rankings, is drawn into Group B of the 10-team Finland qualifier alongside Czech Republic, Germany, Greece and Israel. If they advance out of this week’s tournament, they will move on to a European final regional qualifier next year, where they will face off against Scotland, Jersey and Denmark for a spot in the T20 World Cup.
While Henriques notes that representing Australia and earning a Baggy Green will always be a hard achievement to top, he says pulling on Portugal’s national shirt as captain carries a unique, special meaning. He reconnected with his birthplace during a visit to Madeira last year, and says the experience deepened his connection to the country. “When I played for Australia, my family also felt I was representing them as well. I’m representing the motherland, so to speak, and it’s going to feel somewhat similar,” he explained. “Hopefully we can make a positive impact trying to grow the sport in Portugal and probably Europe more broadly as well.”
Madeira’s most famous native son is global football icon Cristiano Ronaldo, who has the island’s airport renamed in his honor. When asked about the possibility of similar recognition if he pulls off a World Cup qualification, Henriques joked that he would be happy to get a helicopter pad named after him.
Henriques is far from the only high-level professional in Portugal’s squad, a fact that has surprised even him. South African batter Cameron Shekleton, who has played first-class cricket and featured for the Proteas A side, is part of the roster, while former New Zealand Under-19 captain Craig Cachopa, who has represented Sussex, Auckland and Wellington at the domestic level, also joins the group. “I was quietly and pleasantly surprised with the quality of cricketers that we’ve got in the team,” Henriques said. “There’s a lot of high-level cricketers going around, which I probably wasn’t expecting a few years ago when I first started entertaining the thought of playing.”
The veteran all-rounder will face one unusual challenge at the Finland qualifier: he has not played a competitive match on an artificial wicket in 25 years. Compounding that hurdle, he is just five months removed from back surgery, and navigating a full run-up on the synthetic surface while bowling will be his biggest physical test. “Obviously we train a lot indoors on synthetic wickets so hopefully I can make the adjustment,” he said.
Following the conclusion of the qualifier, Henriques will next join Glasgow Cosmic for the inaugural season of the European T20 Premier League as he continues his work growing the sport across the continent.