He was born and brought up in South Africa, played professionally in England and New Zealand and has also been a part of the Netherlands international team. We’re talking about 28-year old Michael Rippon 🇳🇱 who has represented different teams at different stages, and quite frankly, he’s still at the starting stages of his career.
“Just out here workin’ hard and doin’ what we do best: grind, hustle, and anything possible to create new opportunities,” said American rapper and songwriter, Pitbull. It’s safe to say that the Cape Town born sportsman Michael Rippon could relate to that quote and could even qualify as cricket’s very own ‘Mr.Worldwide’.
Starting off playing domestic cricket with the Cape Cobras until the age of 20, he qualified to play County in England too thanks to his Dutch passport. Once while returning from rehab with a broken collar bone, Sussex Cricket Club approached and invited him for a 6-week trial in UK back in 2012. The trial saw the left-arm spinner bagging 7/12 against Kent 2nd XI, which landed him a 2-year contract with Sussex.
From there, he even made his Dutch international debut in 2013 and played a total of 6 ODIs and 18 T20Is between then and 2018. That’s not a lot of game time at the highest level over a period of 5 years, which forced Rippon to look for better opportunities. A couple of successful seasons in New Zealand 🇳🇿 later, Rippon recently became eligible to play for the Black Caps, and Read Scoops was quick to speak to him about this…
Michael Rippon social profiles🌐:
Hi Michael. Congrats on the Black Caps eligibility. Can you tell us how this all happened?
While playing for Netherlands, Anton Roux, the Head Coach at the time took up an opportunity with Otago Volts in New Zealand. In the 2016-17 season, their spinner Mark Craig got injured, so I got a phone call from Roux asking if I’d be interested in coming over to NZ and playing in the One Day competition with the Volts as their overseas player. I did so, came over initially only for a month and I had such a great time. After that, I was lucky enough that an opportunity presented itself on a longer term. NZ Cricket has a rule wherein you have to do a full calendar year in the country or play 2 separate seasons to qualify and become eligible for a domestic contract. At the moment, each team is allowed 2 qualifying players and to become a local, there are other laws like having to reside there for 3 years (10 months a year) and also playing a NZ representative game.
What initially made you decide to give Netherlands a miss and take a shot at playing for New Zealand?
It’s not that I wanted to give Netherlands a miss as such. It’s just that, to play for New Zealand, I had to complete certain criteria. I guess the decision was also based around competing at the highest level, challenging myself and trying to see if I can actually play at that standard and against the best in the world. Netherlands has a lot of top level cricket coming up but I want to try and see if I can push for a spot in the Kiwi white ball side. They’ve obviously got a lot of really, really good players and it would be a great achievement if I could mange to get into that side.
Now that you’re eligible, what do you honestly think your chances are? What preparations are you putting in to make that side?
I think I offer something different being a left arm spinner as well as a batter. In terms of preparations, it’s just about doing all the small things right. Trying to make yourself better everyday, not looking too far ahead and basically, just trying to focus on taking wickets and scoring some runs in each game.
You’ve had a fantastic domestic season in New Zealand…
I’ve made a couple of technical changes with both bat and ball. I suppose mental changes also. I’ve been trying to do a bit of mindfulness just to stay present and focus fully on each and every ball, and not allow distractions to come into my mind. But I guess a lot of the success also comes from the team. We sort of backed up the 50-over cup, competed well in the 20-over tournament and finished third in the Plunket Shield too. A lot of individual success is actually seen when the team starts doing well, which is where Otago Volts is at the moment. We’re a team on the rise and we’re only going to get better from here. There were a lot of stand out performances this season from several individuals, which was awesome to see.
Tell us about your association with Stem Sports and the work they’ve been doing.
I signed with Stem Sports at the end of last year. I’ve been dealing with Uzayr Raja and he’s been fantastic. He’s allowed me to focus on my game while taking care of the administrative stuff completely. I’ve been quite impressed with the way they’ve carried out their business and I’m looking forward to continuing my partnership with them.
What would you say are the major differences in playing cricket in Netherlands and in New Zealand?
In New Zealand, there are probably around 170-180k cricketers while in Netherlands, there are only about 7-8k, so cricket is obviously not that popular among citizens there. Hopefully down the line with the Dutch doing well and the continuous development and improvement of the national side, a lot of people will start playing the sport. I guess the major difference is the facilities and the wickets that the players play on. In New Zealand, you got beautiful turf wickets like Hagley Oval and Basin Reserve, but in the Netherlands you only have a handful of turf wickets. There’s definitely a lot of work to be done there but as the popularity of the sport increases, this will fall in place down the line.
Rapid fire with Michael 🔥
- Batting all-rounder or a bowling all-rounder? “Bowling all-rounder.”
- Favourite cricketers? “Dutch – Tobias Visee, NZ – Stephen Fleming, International – Shane Warne and Jacques Kallis.”
- Favourite stadium? “Newlands Cricket Ground.”
- Ultimate cricketing goal? “To play the highest standard of cricket I possibly can.”
- One thing about you no one knows? “I have a chihuahua called Sammy.”
- If not a cricketer, then what? “I’d like to be involved in business but also in sports, so probably a sports business or sports management.”
- Favourite hobbies? “At the moment during the COVID-19 situation, I’ve been hiding away in isolation and playing a lot of PlayStation. Generally, I enjoy a bit of window shopping, little surfing when it’s not too cold, hiking, being outdoors, and I enjoy my gadgets and electronics. I’m always searching up new things and yeah, I’m a little bit of a James Bond movie.”
Over the decades, New Zealand has produced the highest brand of cricketers who compete fiercely at the international level and yet manage to stay so grounded and respectful of the game. From the entire team at Read Scoops, I wish Michael Rippon the best of luck for his future with New Zealand Cricket, and we hope to see him in their national side jersey soon!
– Dwayne Fernandes, Read Scoops
(Twitter – @dwayneeeboy, Instagram – @dwayneeeboy)
