Michael Klinger
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Michael Klinger (born 4 July 1980) is an Australian former first-class cricketer, who held the record for the most runs scored in the
Big Bash League The Big Bash League (BBL), also known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Australia. Established in 2011 by Cricket Australia, the Big Bash League replaced the previous competitio ...
when he retired in 2019. Until the 2008–09 season, Klinger played for
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
and for St Kilda Cricket Club in Premier Cricket. He joined the South Australia Redbacks for the 2008–09 season, was named their Captain in 2010, and was recognised as the State Player of the Year in both 2009 and 2010. He was one of the 350 players under the hammer for the IPL Auction 2011, and was bought by
Kochi Tuskers Kerala Kochi Tuskers Kerala is a now defunct franchise cricket team that played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) representing the city of Kochi, Kerala, India. The team was one of two new franchises added to the IPL for the 2011 season, alongside ...
. In 2014 he was recruited by the
Perth Scorchers The Perth Scorchers are an Australian men's professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that competes in the Big Bash League. The Scorchers wear an orange uniform and are based in Perth in the Australian state of Western Australia. Their home gr ...
and then also played for
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
. In March 2018, he announced his retirement from first-class cricket.


Personal life

Klinger was born in
Kew, Victoria Kew () is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, found 5 km east from Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District. Kew is located within the City of Boroondara Local government areas of ...
, Australia, and is Jewish. He completed an undergraduate applied science degree in Human Movement, and a Master of Business (Sport Management) degree at
Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...
.


Career

As a young batsman, Klinger was named Captain of the Australia Under 19's Men's Cricket team – his deputy being Michael Clarke who subsequently became captain of the national team. Klinger began as an 18-year-old in the 1998–99 season. His career lowlight was the 2000–01 season when he made a famous 99 not out, with captain
Paul Reiffel Paul Ronald Reiffel (born 19 April 1966) is an Australian former cricketer who played in 35 Tests and 92 One Day Internationals (ODIs) from 1992 to 1999. He was part of Australia's victorious 1999 World Cup team. After retirement he became a f ...
declaring the innings closed, a move which brought great controversy and remains the only batsman in Australian cricket to be stranded on 99 due to a declaration. This caused Klinger some great upset, and following it Klinger had several less successful years, but returned to contention for a spot in the
Victorian Bushrangers The Victoria cricket team is an Australian first-class men's cricket team based in the Australian state of Victoria. The men’s team, which first played in 1851, represents the state of Victoria in the Marsh Sheffield Shield first-class ...
side for the 2005–06 season. He quickly made his first first-class century, and then followed it up with his first
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 ...
one-day century, but his first-class form soon dropped, and he was replaced in the side by Lloyd Mash, not to return in the Pura Cup all season. In 2003 he was the club professional for
Walkden Walkden is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, northwest of central Salford, and of Manchester. Walkden has been designated as one of seven main town centres in the City of Salford, and now largely functions as a r ...
in the Bolton Cricket League. In Season 2006–07 he started off in the outer from the Pura Cup side, but started off his Ford Ranger Cup season in style, nearly getting a century early on, and then following it up with one. He led the runs scoring in the competition for much of the season, eventually finishing 3rd. Klinger's rise to the Pura Cup team came only when Brad Hodge was called up by Australia for their ODI Series, and Klinger's recent form had been wavy, with his last game for the 2nd XI yielding a first innings
duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...
, but second innings century. Klinger was soon to do the same for the 1st XI, but the century ensured that when Hodge returned, Klinger survived. He finished the season as a regular fixture of the Bushrangers side, and was part of a great partnership with
David Hussey David John Hussey (born 15 July 1977) is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. Hussey is a right-handed batter and can also Bowler (cricket), bowl right-arm off breaks. He is the younger brother of former Australian cricketer Michael ...
in a match against NSW, in which the Vics defied all odds to chase down a massive total of 360 on an extremely poor 4th day pitch (it was later described as a 3rd day pitch on day 1 by Hussey), scoring 102.


Move to South Australia

Klinger joined the South Australia Redbacks for the 2008–09 season in order to get more opportunities at state level, where he began batting at number 3 rather than opening, and saw immediate success, scoring a maiden 150 not out against old state Victoria in his first game. Then, against Western Australia on 11 November, Klinger scored his maiden double century, finishing on 255, and he continued to score heavily in both the
Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams representing the six states of Australia. The Sheffield Shield is named after Henry Holroyd, 3rd Earl of Sheffield, Lor ...
and the Ford Ranger Cup, and hit his third century for the season against Queensland at the Gabba, and his first away from the traditionally batting friendly
Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...
. On 11 December 2008, Klinger posted his highest individual score in one day cricket, with an unbeaten 133 off just 128 balls. This guided South Australia to victory in their high-scoring match against the Tasmania Tigers at the
Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...
. This was Klinger's fourth one-day century. He won the Australian Cricketers' Association's December 2008 Johnnie Walker player-of-the-month award. In 2010, Klinger was named Captain of the Redbacks. In November 2019, he was appointed as the head coach of
Melbourne Renegades Melbourne Renegades are an Australian professional men's Twenty20 franchise cricket club based in Melbourne, the capital city of the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. They compete in the Australian Twenty20 cricket competit ...
, an Australian franchise professional men's Twenty20 cricket team. He replaced former all-rounder Andrew McDonald who resigned for becoming Australia's assistant coach.


Indian Premier League

Klinger was one of the 350 players under the hammer for the IPL Auction 2011, and was bought by
Kochi Tuskers Kerala Kochi Tuskers Kerala is a now defunct franchise cricket team that played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) representing the city of Kochi, Kerala, India. The team was one of two new franchises added to the IPL for the 2011 season, alongside ...
for
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
75,000.


Gloucestershire

In December 2012, Klinger was signed by
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, founded in 1870, is one of 18 first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, hist ...
, not only as their overseas player for the 2013 season, but also as their captain, taking over from
Alex Gidman Alexander Peter Richard Gidman (born 22 June 1981) is an English cricket coach and former cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler who played for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Gloucestershire and Worcest ...
. He had previously stood in for
Phillip Hughes Phillip Joel Hughes (30 November 1988 – 27 November 2014) was an Australian Test cricket, Test and One Day International (ODI) cricketer who played domestic cricket for South Australia cricket team, South Australia and Worcestershire County C ...
at
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...
at the beginning of the previous season. He scored over 1000 runs in the County Championship, scoring 6 centuries, plus another 1000 runs in the limited over competitions. Due to his success, Klinger returned to captain Gloucs again for the 2014 season. He was their leading run scorer in the One Day Cup, until he broke his arm playing against Derbyshire in August. In August 2015, he was confirmed as staying with the club for the 2016 season.


Western Australia

Klinger signed a two-year contract with Western Australia in April 2014. He recovered from the broken arm to make his debut for WA in the 2014–15 Matador BBQs One-Day Cup in October. Klinger scored 71 runs (not out) for the Perth Scorchers as they beat the Sydney Sixers to win the Big Bash League , 06 in January 2017.


International career

Klinger competed for Australia at the
1997 Maccabiah Games The 15th Maccabiah Games are primarily remembered for being marred by a Maccabiah bridge collapse, bridge collapse that killed several participants. The Maccabiah had more than 5,000 athletes from 33 countries competing in 36 sports. New sports fo ...
in Israel when he was 17 years old, winning a gold medal. In February 2017, Klinger was named in Australia's
Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...
(T20I) squad for their series against Sri Lanka. He made his T20I debut for Australia against Sri Lanka at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...
on 17 February 2017. At the age of 36, Klinger became the oldest player for Australia to debut in a T20I. Despite having the 20th highest List A batting average of all time (49.33) and the second highest by an Australian, Klinger never played a One Day International.


Awards

* State Cricket Players of the Year: 2009 * State Cricket Players of the Year: 2010


See also

* List of select Jewish cricketers


References


Sources

* Miller, A. (2001) ''Allan's Cricket Annual'', Allan Miller: Perth. .


External links

*
Twitter page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klinger, Michael 1980 births Living people Adelaide Strikers cricketers Australia Twenty20 International cricketers Australian cricketers Gloucestershire cricket captains Gloucestershire cricketers Jewish Australian sportspeople Jewish cricketers Kensington cricketers Kochi Tuskers Kerala cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in India Maccabiah Games medalists in cricket Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Australia Competitors at the 1997 Maccabiah Games Paarl Rocks cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in South Africa Perth Scorchers cricketers South Australia cricketers Cricketers from Melbourne Victoria cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in England Western Australia cricketers Deakin University alumni People from Kew, Victoria Australian people of German-Jewish descent Women's Premier League (cricket) coaches 21st-century Australian sportsmen