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

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 str ...

er. He current plays international cricket for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, having previously also played for the

Netherlands national cricket team The Netherlands national cricket team (Dutch: Nederlandse cricket team) is the men's team that represents the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is administered by the Royal Dutch Cricket Association. Cricket has been played in the Netherlands sin ...

. 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 pitchin ...

Personal life

Rippon was born in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the 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 VRA Amsterdam (Volharding RAP Amstels) is a cricket club in Amstelveen, Netherlands. It was founded on September 5, 1914 from the merger of Volharding (1889), RAP (1887) and Amstels C.C. (1885). In the early years the club played visiting English ...

. He attended

Rondebosch Boys' High School Rondebosch Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the topmost academic schools in South Africa and one of th ...

in Cape Town.

Early career in South Africa

Rippon made his

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

debut for

Cape Cobras The Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras are a franchise cricket team representing the Western Province, Boland, and South Western Districts areas in South African domestic cricket. The team's home venues are Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town, Boland ...

against the Knights in the

2010–11 Standard Bank Pro20 The 2010–11 Standard Bank Pro20 was the eighth season of the Standard Bank Pro20 Series, established by the Cricket South Africa. The series was played between 28 January – 13 March 2011. Venues Rules and regulations The tournament is di ...

. 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. In his six appearances in the competition, Rippon took 4 wickets at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 31.75, with best figures of 2/28. It was in that same season that he made his debut for

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: * Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provin ...

in a List A 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 The CSA Provincial Competitions are three South African domestic cricket competitions run by Cricket South Africa (CSA). Three-day ( first-class) and one-day ( List A) competitions were introduced for the 2004–05 season, while a Twenty20 competi ...

. 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 side Sussex 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 The 2012 Friends Life t20 was the third season of the Friends Life t20, England's premier domestic Twenty20 competition. The competition ran from 12 June to 25 August 2012. The teams in the tournament remained the same as the previous season. ...

against

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

at the

County Ground, Hove The County Cricket Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as The 1st Central County Ground, is a cricket venue in Hove, East Sussex, England. The County Ground is the home of Sussex County Cricket Club, where most Sussex home matches since 1872 ...

. 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 at

The Oval The Oval, currently known 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 since ...

, and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

at the Rose Bowl. Rippon has suggested he may want to qualify for England. In June 2018, he was awarded a contract with Otago for the 2018–19 season. In June 2020, he was offered a contract by Otago ahead of the 2020–21 domestic cricket season.

International career

In July 2018, he was named in the Netherlands' One Day International (ODI) squad, for their series against Nepal. He is now eligible to be selected by the New Zealand national cricket team. 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, and is the second tier of international New Zealand cricket below the full New Zealand cricket team The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in ...

for practice matches against the touring West Indies team. After starring for the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

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 ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

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.

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 Netherlands One Day International cricketers Netherlands Twenty20 International cricketers Otago cricketers Dutch cricketers South African emigrants to the Netherlands South African emigrants to New Zealand Dual international cricketers