Ryan McLaren

Ryan McLaren comes from a cricketing family. Born on 9th February 1983 in Kimberly, his father, uncle and cousin have all played domestic cricket in South Africa. His father, Paul McLaren and uncle, Keith McLaren played domestic cricket during South Africa's Aprtheid years, and thus they could not make it to the International squad. His cousin, Adrian McLaren plays for the Diamond Eagles, but has not yet managed to make it to the South African National squad. His father and uncle were both pace bowlers, so it was only natural that Ryan McLaren would inherit their genes.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for McLaren though. In his formative years, with South Africa having an abundance of all-rounders, he didn't stand a good chance of making it to the national side, even though he didn't lack in quality. He thus signed up with Kent as a Kolpak player. The tricky thing was, McLaren had signed an iron-clad contract with Kent that explicitly stated he would not be playing for South Africa and would thus be available for Kent. In late 2008, his country came calling, but Kent did not let him go, and it seemed like McLaren might be lost to the cricket world. However, towards the latter half of 2009, the county eventually agreed to release him, and McLaren finally donned national colours.

He made his Test debut against England in the fourth and final Test of the series in 2009-10, and displayed commendable resilience in the cauldron of the Bullring at the Wanderers. He had made his way into the playing eleven only after an injury to Friedel de Wet, and South Africa needed to win the Test, being down one-nil in the series. McLaren contributed a confident unbeaten 33 in the first (and only) innings, to build South Africa's lead from which they could force an innings victory. He then bowled aggressively and kept the batsmen quiet, but without much luck. This performance suggested that South Africa may have found another fast bowling all rounder, to fill the rather large boots of Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis (when he retires).

He made headlines in the South Africa's tour of West Indies in 2010 in the first T20I match, where he took 5-19, which is the best bowling figures in T20Is for South Africa. Recently he had a fruitful ODI series against Pakistan at UAE in 2013 where he was adjudged as the player of the Series for his all-round performance. McLaren had to wait for 4 years before his next Test, it came against Australia at the Centurion, he had a torrid time as he picked up only 2 wickets and didn't contribute with the bat. He also suffered an injury in that match which did not allow him to take part in the 2014 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.

Given his utility on the field, it came as no surprise when IPL scouts began to show their share of interest in him. He signed up with Mumbai Indians in 2009 and played a useful role in seeing them through to the finals in the 2010 season. He followed it up with some bench-warming in his stints with Kings XI Punjab and then with Kolkata Knight Riders.

As South Africa pinned their hopes on him to turn into what Jacques Kallis was for them for years, McLaren was never the same player post recovery. He kept getting chances through 2014, but a wretched series against Australia saw him lose him lose his place for the 2015 World Cup. Having turned his focus towards the global T20 leagues around the globe after his international snub, McLaren turned out for Hampshire in the 2016 County Championship, for Lancashire in the 2017 season and got himself a contract with currently-postponed Stellenbosch Kings in the Global T20 league.