Calum MacLeod : Retirement | Stats | Retires

Scotland batter Calum MacLeod has announced his retirement from international cricket. MacLeod represented Scotland 229 times across formats.

Calum MacLeod : Retirement | Stats | Retires

Calum Scott MacLeod is a Scottish professional cricketer. He has represented the Scotland national team since 2008, including at the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 World Twenty20.

He has played county cricket in England for Warwickshire and Durham. In January 2019, MacLeod was named the ICC Associate Player of the Year at the 2018 ICC Awards.

As a youth MacLeod played for Drumpellier Cricket Club, where he made massive strides under the tutelage of Graham Robertson.

Following the advice of Graham he moved to the Scottish National Cricket League Premier Division with Uddingston Cricket Club, as an opening bowler and middle order batsman. He played in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka.

Calum MacLeod Retirement 

Calum MacLeod has announced his retirement from international cricket.

“Having announced my retirement to the team a few days ago, I’m sitting here thinking back to what inspired me in the first place and that would be the Scotland versus Australia game at the 1999 World Cup,” McLeod said in a statement released by Cricket Scotland earlier in the week. “I remember watching that and thinking ‘that is what I want to do’ and it lit a fire inside me to go on and do everything I could to play for Scotland.

“So, to fast forward to now as I step back having played in five World Cups, I think if you’d told me way back then what I’d go on to achieve with my country, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

MacLeod, 33, made his full international debut in 2008 – though he had started out the year before at ICC pathway events – and played 88 ODIs and 64 T20Is, representing Scotland in four T20 World Cups and one 50-over World Cup.

He ended with 3026 runs at an average of 38.30 in ODIs – which included ten centuries – and 1238 runs at 23.80 in T20Is. He has the second-most runs for Scotland in ODIs behind Kyle Coetzer and is fourth on the list in T20Is.

One of his notable contributions came in 2018, when he struck 140 not out in Edinburgh to help Scotland beat England for the first time in an ODI.

Calum MacLeod stats

His first ODI cap came in the historic match against England on 18 August 2008 where he scored 10 not out from 11 balls before that game, too, fell victim to rain.

As early as June 2009, during the World Twenty20, Warwickshire’s coaching staff noticed that MacLeod’s bowling action may have been problematic.

After an Intercontinental Cup match against Canada in July 2010 in which MacLeod took six wickets, the umpires reported to the International Cricket Council that his action needed to be tested.

In 2010, MacLeod was one of six cricketers given full-time contracts with Cricket Scotland. MacLeod did not play a single list A match in 2010 and was released by Warwickshire at the end of the 2010 season.

Having left Warwickshire, MacLeod’s next list A match was for Scotland in the 2011 Clydesdale Bank 40.

The England Cricket Board had launched the competition the previous year and Scotland was included along with the Netherlands and the 18 first-class teams from England and Wales.

Scotland won two of their twelve matches that year, had one no result and lost the rest, finishing bottom of their group. MacLeod managed 92 runs from six matches with a highest score of 33.

Retires 

Scotland batter Calum MacLeod has announced his retirement from international cricket. MacLeod represented Scotland 229 times across formats after making his debut in 2007.

The right-handed batter featured in five World Cups for Scotland, including the ongoing one in Australia. In 88 ODIs, he made 3026 runs including ten hundreds.

Even though he surpassed 150 on a couple of occasions, against Canada and Zimbabwe, it was the unbeaten 140 against England in 2018 that put him in the spotlight. That whirlwind knock gave Scotland a famous thrilling win as they defended 371 by six runs.

“Finishing after this World Cup in Australia has been tough because we didn’t manage to achieve what we wanted to achieve, but I leave the group with a real sense of hope that, with the right backing and the right opportunities, the current team can really go far and can inspire many,” MacLeod said.

“My career with Scotland has been filled with some real highs and a few lows, I feel extremely fortunate to have played for my country 229 times. It was something that I never took for granted and it was a huge honour and a privilege. I hope I have entertained a few people along the way and, ultimately, I feel like I am leaving the team in a better place than when I started this amazing journey.”

MacLeod’s last outing for Scotland was against Zimbabwe last month where he scored 25 in a game that saw his side go down, to miss out on a Super 12 spot despite the bright start they had made in the tournament.

“I am Incredibly sad to see his career end particularly in the fashion it did with us bowing out of the World Cup in the first round as it would not have been how Calum would have wanted,” Head coach Shane Burger said.

“For me personally, Calum leaves a great legacy behind him in not only the runs he scored including ten ODI hundreds, but also his desire to put in performances in the earlier part of his career when he was a bowler and had to transition into a batter. He is an incredibly talented sportsman, a fantastic fielder, a real fighter and someone who would front up when it was required.”