Oliver Philip Rayner (born 1 November 1985) is an English former professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He is a right-arm off break bowler and right-handed batsman who most recently played for

Middlesex County Cricket Club Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial ...

. In May 2019, he was selected to represent the German cricket team. In March 2020, Rayner announced his retirement from cricket.

Career

Sussex

Rayner represented the Sussex first-team since 2006, having been an occasional part of the Second XI team since his debut in 2002. Rayner hit a

century A century is a period of 100 years. 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. A centennial or ...

in the first match of his first-class career, against the touring

Sri Lankan cricket team The Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජාතික ක්‍රිකට් කණ්ඩායම, ta, இலங்கை தேசிய கிரிக்கெட் அணி) nicknamed The Lions ...

, becoming the first

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

player to do so for 86 years. In spite of this strong start, the beginning of his County Championship career was shaky, though he put in an occasional good spell with the ball. Generally speaking, Rayner occupied the lower order, while working on the reliability and consistency of his batting.

Middlesex

Rayner joined the

on loan for the start of the 2011 season until mid-May. In August 2011, Rayner returned to Middlesex on loan for the remainder of the season. Rayner, then aged 25, hit 266 runs and took 11 wickets in eight County Championship games for Middlesex during 2011. On 11 October, the all-rounder signed on a three-year deal after he impressed with his previous two loan spells. In the 2013 season, Rayner took 46 wickets at an average of 22.0, lifting him into some discussion of landing a place in the

England Lions cricket team The England Lions (formerly England A) cricket team is England and Wales' "second-tier" team, below the full England cricket team. It is largely intended as a way for promising young cricketers to gain experience of playing international cricke ...

. On 21 January 2014, Rayner was called up to the England Lions Squad for the forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka. He replaced the injured Simon Kerrigan who would be monitored with the possibility of him joining the squad later on in the tour if his condition improved.

Germany

In February 2019, Rayner attended a training camp with the German national cricket team, with the view to help Germany qualify via the Regional Finals of the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 Europe Qualifier group for the

2020 ICC T20 World Cup The 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Women's T20 World Cup tournament. It was held in Australia between 21 February and 8 March 2020. The final took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on International Women's Day. Hosts Aus ...

. In May 2019, he was named in Germany's squad for the

Regional Finals In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

of the

2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier The 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier was a cricket tournament that formed part of qualification process for the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup. Twelve regional qualifiers were held by the International Cricket Council (ICC), with 62 teamsZambi ...

tournament in Guernsey.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rayner, Ollie 1985 births Living people English cricketers German cricketers Sussex cricketers Middlesex cricketers People educated at St Bede's School, Hailsham Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Mid West Rhinos cricketers Hampshire cricketers Kent cricketers English cricketers of the 21st century