Moises Henriques retired from Australian domestic cricket in July after making 420 appearances across all formats. Moises 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 said 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."

Madeira's most famous son is Cristiano Ronaldo, and the island changed the name of its airport in honour of the Portuguese football star. Henriques joked he "might get a helicopter pad" named after him if he is able to skipper Portugal to the World Cup.

Portugal, ranked 37th in the world, will first have to come through the 10-team tournament in Finland, where they have drawn Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, and Israel in Group B. Should they progress, the next stage will be a European final regional qualifier with Scotland, Jersey, and Denmark next year.

Henriques said while earning a Baggy Green will take some beating, the feeling of pulling on a Portugal shirt, and captaining the country, will be something special. "I went back to Madeira last year and it was the first time I'd been back, but I felt really connected to the place," Henriques said. "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. "Hopefully we can make a positive impact trying to grow the sport in Portugal and probably Europe more broadly as well."

Henriques, who will also play for Glasgow Cosmic in the inaugural European T20 Premier League following the qualifier, is not the only player in Portugal's squad to have played professionally. Batter Cameron Shekleton, 26, has played first-class cricket in South Africa and appeared for the Proteas A side. Former New Zealand Under-19 captain Craig Cachopa, 34, represented Sussex, Auckland, and Wellington.

"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."

One challenge that Henriques will face at the qualifier in Finland is playing on an artificial pitch for the first time in a few decades. "It would be 25 years since I've actually played a game of cricket on a synthetic wicket," added the former Sydney Sixers skipper. "I'm coming out of back surgery about five months ago so the biggest challenge bowling will be landing on a synthetic wicket on coming off a full run-up. "Obviously we train a lot indoors on synthetic wickets so hopefully I can make the adjustment."

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