Ryan McLaren

A sharp seam-bowling allrounder, Ryan McLaren would only two Tests, 54 ODIs, and 12 T20Is for South Africa but played more than 500 domestic games in South Africa, England, and India. McLaren was a valuable length pacer who could contribute highly in the lower order. 

Born in Kimberley, McLaren was a product of the U-19 World Cup as he represented South Africans during the 2002 edition of the tournament. Post the global event, the allrounder signed a deal with Free State (now called Knights) to make his domestic debut. He shifted to Kent in 2007 where McLaren took a hat-trick to help Kent win the Twenty20 Cup for the first time. Later, he migrated to Middlesex in 2011 to stay there for the next seven seasons. 

He made his international debut in the limited-overs series against Zimbabwe and a year later made headlines on the tour of West Indies where he took 5-19 in the first T20I match. On the backdrop of the performances in the shorter formats, McLaren was called in to make his Test debut against England in the fourth and final Test of the series in 2010. For the next couple of years, McLaren found himself in and out of the national team as the allrounder could not cement his place. 

It wasn’t a surprise when Mumbai Indians signed the South African for the 2009 edition and he played a useful role in seeing them through to the finals in the 2010 season. He followed it up with some disappointing stints with Kings XI Punjab and then with Kolkata Knight Riders. McLaren also played county cricket till 2017. Two years later, the South African hung his boots up during the 2019 domestic season, at the age of 35. 

In 2021, the seam-bowling allrounder made another comeback to the game when he represented the South Africa Legends during the Road Safety World Series, held in India. 

(As of April 2021)