Nezam Hafiz and 9/11 attack (Images: Wikipedia and X)
But before he became one of the victims of one of the darkest days in American history, Hafiz was known to many simply as a cricketer: a talented batsman, a thoughtful teammate and a man who had built much of his life around the game.
Born in Guyana on April 21, 1969, Hafiz grew up in a country where cricket was deeply woven into everyday life. He captained the Guyana Under-19 team in 1988, with one of his opponents in that tournament being Trinidad and Tobago’s Brian Lara , who would later become one of the greatest batsmen in cricket history. He also toured England with the USA team in 2000. In the months and years after 9/11, cricket matches were organised in his honour. His American Cricket Society teammates held a memorial match in Queens in 2002, while another was later held at the Malteenoes Cricket Club in Guyana. In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, another memorial match was organised in New York. The cricket bat from one of those memorial matches is now part of the collection of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
His talent emerged early. Hafiz subsequently made his first-class debut for Guyana and played several matches for the senior side during the late 1980s and early 1990s. In Queens, Hafiz became a prominent figure in the local cricket community, playing for the American Cricket Society and eventually representing the United States. His teammates refused to allow Hafiz’s memory to disappear. Memorial matches continued in New York for several years.