Michael James Rippon (born 14 September 1991) is a South African-born

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 current plays international cricket for

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, having previously also played for the

Netherlands national cricket team The Netherlands men's national cricket team (), usually referred as "The Flying Dutchmen" is a team that represents the Netherlands in men's international cricket and is administered by the Royal Dutch Cricket Association. Cricket has been pl ...

. He is a right-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

left-arm unorthodox spin Left-arm unorthodox spin, also known as slow left-arm wrist spin, is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket . Left-arm unorthodox spin bowlers use wrist spin to spin the ball, and make it deviate, or 'turn' from left to right after pit ...

Personal life

Rippon was born in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

on 14 September 1991. He lived in the Netherlands for three years as a young child, his Dutch grandfather having immigrated to South Africa in the 1970s. He began playing club cricket in the Netherlands at the age of 15, after his coach Ryan Maron recruited him to play for VRA Amsterdam. He attended Rondebosch Boys' High School in Cape Town.

Early career in South Africa

Rippon 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 for Cape Cobras against the

Knights A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the 2010–11 Standard Bank Pro20. He made five further appearances for the Cobras in that competition, with his final appearance coming in the final of the competition against the

Warriors A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have been p ...

. In his six appearances in the competition, Rippon took 4 wickets 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 31.75, with best figures of 2/28. It was in that same season that he made his debut for Western Province 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 Boland. The following season, Rippon made his first-class debut for Western Province against KwaZulu-Natal Inland at the City Oval, Pietermaritzburg, in the CSA Provincial Three-Day Competition. He made two further first-class appearances during the competition, against Boland and Easterns. He scored 40 runs in his three first-class matches, and took 6 wickets at an average of 45.33, with best figures of 3/34. He also made four Twenty20 appearances for Western Province in the 2011–12 CSA Provincial T20, taking 6 wickets at an average of 18.16, with best figures of 3/24.

Career in England and New Zealand

Rippon signed for English county

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

for the 2012 season, signing a contract which kept him there until the end of the 2013 season. Having spent much of the 2012 season playing for the Sussex Second XI, he made his senior debut for the county in the 2012 Friends Life t20 against

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

at the County Ground, Hove. He took figures of 4/23 on debut to help Sussex to an 83 run victory. He has since made two further appearances in the competition, against

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

The Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...

, and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

at the Rose Bowl. Rippon has suggested he may want to qualify for England. In June 2018, he was awarded a contract with

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

for the 2018–19 season. In June 2020, he was offered a contract by Otago ahead of the 2020–21 domestic cricket season. Ahead of the 2023-24 domestic season, Rippon signed with

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

International career

In July 2018, he was named in the Netherlands'

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 ...

(ODI) squad, for their series against Nepal. He is now eligible to be selected by the

New Zealand national cricket team The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Nicknamed the Black Caps (), they played their first Test cricket, Test in 1930 against England cricket team, England in Christchurch, becoming the f ...

. In November 2020, Rippon was named in the

New Zealand A cricket team The New Zealand A cricket team is a cricket team representing New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and L ...

for practice matches against the touring West Indies team. After starring for 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 games against New Zealand in 2021, Rippon was selected for his newest adopted nation – New Zealand – in June 2022. The team scheduled games against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

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 ...

and his former side the

in the T20 format of the game. He made his T20I debut for New Zealand on 29 July 2022, against

, becoming the 14th cricketer to represent two international teams in T20Is, and the first left-arm wristspinner to represent New Zealand.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rippon, Michael 1991 births Living people Cricketers from Cape Town Alumni of Rondebosch Boys' High School South African cricketers Cape Cobras cricketers Western Province cricketers Sussex cricketers Expatriate cricketers in England Netherlands One Day International cricketers Netherlands Twenty20 International cricketers New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketers Otago cricketers Dutch cricketers South African emigrants to the Netherlands South African emigrants to New Zealand Dual international cricketers