Michael Refstrup Pedersen (born 1 March 1986) is a Danish

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 is a left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who bowls right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to ...

. He was born at

Herning Herning () is a Denmark, Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 51,782 (1 January 2025)

Early career

Having played cricket since he was nine and represented Denmark at Under-19 level, Pedersen made his full debut for

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

in a

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 ...

match against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

in the

2005 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy The 2005 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy was the 4th Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy, an English county cricket tournament, held between 3 May and 3 September 2005. The competition was contested by all 18 first-class counties, as well as 10 minor ...

at Svanholm Park, Brøndby. It was an unsuccessful debut for Pedersen, with him contributing 4 runs in Denmark's total of 56, before he became one of

Charl Pietersen Charl Pietersen (born 6 January 1983) is a South African cricketer who played for the Eagles cricket team. He is a distant relative of Kevin Pietersen. His brother Ruan Pietersen also played for Griqualand West as a left-arm bowler. Despite be ...

's six wickets. Later that year, he appeared in the

ICC Trophy The Cricket World Cup Qualifier (previously called the ICC Trophy and officially known as the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Qualifier) is a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that serves as the culmination of the qualification pro ...

in Ireland. 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 ...

afforded List A status to these matches, with him making seven appearances during the tournament. Pedersen fared moderately with the bat, scoring 76 runs at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 19.00, with a high score of 26. In 2006, Pedersen joined the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

Young Cricketer's programme. The following year, he was selected as part of Denmark's squad for the World Cricket League Division Two in Namibia, making four List A appearances during the tournament. He struggled with the bat, scoring 34 runs at an average of 8.50. In 2009, he was selected in Denmark's squad for the

World Cup Qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

in South Africa, where he made seven List A appearances, including his final appearance to date in that format, 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 ...

. He scored 292 runs during the tournament at average of 41.71, with a high score of 121. This was his maiden List A

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

and came against 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 ...

. He also made two half centuries during the tournament and ended it as Denmark's leading run-scorer, ahead of his brother

Carsten Karsten or Carsten is a both a given name and a surname. It is believed to be either derived from a Low German form of Christian, or "man from karst". Notable persons with the name include: Given name ;Carsten: * Carsten Becker (born 1990), Germa ...

who made 234 runs. Despite this, Denmark failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup and finished the tournament in 16th and last place.

Danish captaincy

In 2011, Pedersen was selected to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Denmark's squad for the

2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Three The 2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Three was a cricket tournament that took place between 22 and 29 January 2011. It formed part of the ICC World Cricket League. Hong Kong hosted the event and also ran out winners. Teams The teams that to ...

tournament in Hong Kong, having replaced

Frederik Klokker Frederik Andreas Klokker (born 13 March 1983) is a Danish cricketer, who has played for Denmark's national cricket team. Klokker is a left-handed batsman and wicket-keeper. He was born in Odense, Funen County. In August 2021, he made his Twenty ...

in the role. He made six appearances during the tournament, scoring 164 runs at an average of 32.80, with a high score of 78

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 ...

. Denmark finished fifth in the tournament and were relegated to 2012 World Cricket League Division Four. Later in 2011, he captained Denmark in the European T20 Championship Division One which was held in

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

and

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

, which Denmark won to qualify for the World Twenty20 Qualifier in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. The qualifier took place in March 2012, with Pedersen retained as captain in Denmark's fourteen-man squad for the qualifier. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut during the tournament against

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at the

Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium The Sharjah Cricket Stadium () is located in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It holds the record for being the venue that hosted the highest number of international matches, 294 matches, up to March 17, 2024. It was originally constructed ...

. He made seven further appearances during the competition, the last of which came against Oman. He scored a total of 108 runs during the qualifier at an average of 15.42, with a high score of 38. He also took 2 wickets, at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 63.00 and with best figures of 1/12. Denmark once again struggled during a qualifying tournament, finishing it in 16th and last place. In August 2012, he was selected as captain in Denmark's fourteen man squad for the World Cricket League Division Four in Malaysia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedersen, Michael 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Herning Municipality Danish cricketers Danish cricket captains