Calum Scott MacLeod (born 15 November 1988) is a Scottish professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. 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 Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

and Durham. In January 2019, MacLeod was named the ICC Associate Player of the Year at the 2018 ICC Awards.

Early life

MacLeod was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. He attended Hillpark Secondary School, the Glasgow Gaelic School at the time. His family originally comes from Johnshaven, near Aberdeen and the island of

South Uist South Uist (, ; ) is the second-largest island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. At the 2011 census, it had a usually resident population of 1,754: a decrease of 64 since 2001. The island, in common with the rest of the Hebrides, is one of the ...

in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...

Domestic and T20 franchise career

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 The 2006 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was played in Sri Lanka from 2 to 15 February 2006. It was the sixth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup. The final was played between Pakistan Under-19 cricket team, Pakistan and India Under-19 cri ...

in Sri Lanka. After making some 70 appearances with Scotland age group sides (U12 to U23), he secured a retainer contract with Warwickshire for the 2006 season, to play Under-17s, Under-19s and 2nd XI cricket. Awarded an improved contract for 2007, he ended the season as joint top wicket-taker in the Warwickshire 2nd XI and was voted "Most Improved 2nd XI Player of the Year" by the County side. In November 2007 the 19-year-old MacLeod signed a two-year contract with Warwickshire. He spent winter 2007/8 playing Grade cricket for Penrith in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and returned to Moseley Cricket Club as their contracted County player for 2008 in the Birmingham Premier Cricket League. MacLeod gained his full first-class Scotland cap when he was called up for the Intercontinental Cup match against the

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in 2007, becoming the youngest Scottish player to debut at this level. During the 2008 Friends Provident series MacLeod played two matches against Durham and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

and was selected for two

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

ties against

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both of which succumbed to rain. Despite international absences and a stomach injury which reduced his Warwickshire 2nd XI appearances, MacLeod's 2008 season ended with debut matches in the Warwickshire first team, both away from home, against

a match abandoned due to rain and

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

in a Pro40 win. In October, with another season still to run on his current deal, MacLeod was offered, and accepted, a new improved two-year contract to run until the end of the 2010 season. In 2014, he along with John Hastings holds the highest 6th wicket partnership in T20 history (126*) MacLeod spent the 2016 season playing for Boldon Cricket Club in the North East Premier League. In 2018, he began playing for Bexley in the Kent Premier League. In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Toronto Nationals franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament. In July 2019, he was selected to play for the Edinburgh Rocks in the inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam cricket tournament. However, the following month the tournament was cancelled.

International career

His first ODI cap came in the historic match against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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

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in July 2010 in which MacLeod took six wickets, the umpires reported to the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

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. MacLeod was released by Warwickshire at the end of the 2010 season. Having left

, MacLeod's next list A match was for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

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.

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. In the 2011 Karp Hong Kong Super Sixes event MacLeod was placed 4th in the Championship Player stats, and 5th in the Batting stats. In March 2012 the

hosted the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. During

's win against

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

, MacLeod scored 104

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

from 76 deliveries. With 307 runs from 9 matches (including one century and two fifties) he was Scotland's leading run-scorer in the tournament and fifth overall. Though

progressed to the preliminary finals, they lost to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in which MacLeod scored 57 from 42 in the match and failed to qualify for the World Twenty20 later that year. MacLeod made 175, the second highest score by an Associate player in an ODI and third highest by an Associate player in

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

cricket, in a 170-run romp over

to seal a place for

in the Super Sixes and put an end to

's consecutive

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

streak dating back to 2003. MacLeod erased any chance of that happening with 175 off 141 balls in

's total of 341 for 9. On 10 June 2018, Scotland secured the biggest win in their cricketing history with a six-run, first-ever, defeat of England with MacLeod scoring 140 not out with 16 fours and 3 sixes off 94 balls. In August 2019, during the 2019 Scotland Tri-Nation Series in Scotland, MacLeod scored his 2,000th run in ODI cricket. In September 2019, he was named in Scotland's squad for the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier tournament in the United Arab Emirates. Ahead of the tournament, the

(ICC) named him as the key player in Scotland's squad. On 24 October 2019, in the match against

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

, MacLeod scored his 1,000th run in T20I cricket. In November 2020, MacLeod was nominated for the ICC Men's Associate Cricketer of the Decade award. In September 2021, MacLeod was named in Scotland's provisional squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. MacLeod announced his retirement from international cricket on 31 October 2022, a few days after Scotland faced a first-round exit.

Bowling action

MacLeod was assisted by

and Cricket Scotland to remodel his action. After completing remedial work, followed by analysis and assessment by the ICC, he is now free to bowl in all domestic, national and international competition. During this period MacLeod concentrated on his batting technique to the extent that he now opens the batting for

in T20 matches, plays top-order in 50 over games, while confirming a strong middle-order presence in 3 and 4-day ties.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macleod, Calum 1988 births Living people Scottish cricketers Scotland One Day International cricketers Scotland Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers from Glasgow Warwickshire cricketers Durham cricketers Derbyshire cricketers Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup Paktia Panthers cricketers Sussex cricketers Kent cricketers