Macleod faces return to club game after heroics
Scotland’s hero Calum Macleod will go back to playing club cricket in Kent later this month unless his innings against England has opened a way back in to county cricket.
Macleod has had a curious career. He started out as a fast bowler and once fielded in an Ashes Test for England while on Warwickshire’s books in 2009 but had to reinvent himself as a batsman when he was called for throwing.
He has not looked back and is now one of the best batsmen in associate-member cricket with his pedigree made clear by his century against Afghanistan in the World Cup qualifiers last month. Macleod relearned how to play the sweep shot as he prepared to face Afghanistan’s legspinner Rashid
Khan and played the crucial innings in Scotland’s win. He ranked yesterday’s 140 not out as just as good, although beating the English should give it extra importance.
Scotland failed to qualify for the World Cup in acrimonious circumstances and it denied players like Macleod, who turned out for Hampshire seconds earlier this summer, valuable exposure against the top nations, meaning he had to take his chance against England to put himself in the shop window for a county deal.
But as a proud Scot, Macleod believes the importance of this performance goes beyond personal achievements. “We want more games,” he said. “That is the bigger shop window rather than the personal side of it. Anyone watching should see the energy from the crowd and what passion there is for cricket up here.
“As a Scotland team we have looked at the way Afghanistan and Ireland have progressed and that has been on the back of beating full-member teams. Our chances at World Cups will be a bit more limited now but if we can beat teams when they come up then that is how we will sit up and be counted.” Macleod is captaining Bexley in the Kent Premier Division and “renovating a house”. Scotland’s international summer ends against Holland on June 20 and beating England does at least heal some of the pain of not qualifying for the World Cup, which cost Scottish cricket around £700,000 in funding and valuable profile. “It does not take away what happened in Zimbabwe and everyone’s feelings about the 10-team World Cup but this was a special day,” said Macleod.