Richie Berrington

Some Lesser Known Facts About Richie Berrington

• Richie Berrington is a Scottish cricketer who is known for his great performances in many international games for Scotland’s cricket team.

• Berrington was born in Pretoria, South Africa, but he moved to Scotland when he was a child.

• As a teenager, he played cricket for Scotland at a national level, representing the country in various age groups, from under-13s to under-19s.

• He showed exceptional talent in cricket to the extent that he began playing for Scotland’s under-19 team even when he was eligible for under-17 cricket.

• At the age of 18, he travelled to India as a member of the European Cricket Council Development team. Additionally, he participated in the International Cricket Council’s inaugural Winter Training Camp in Pretoria.

• In 2006, he became a member of Scotland’s team for the Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Sri Lanka.

• Berrington advanced through the Scottish A team and later made his One Day International debut for Scotland in July 2008, where he played a crucial role by scoring the winning runs against Ireland.

• The following month, he participated in his first Twenty20 International match, again against Ireland.

• He secured a permanent spot in the Scottish team, performing exceptionally in Twenty20s and first-class cricket. He was selected for their squad to participate in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20.

• After initially having a seasonal contract from April to September 2009, he became the sixth Scottish cricketer to receive a full-time contract with Cricket Scotland in March 2010.

• Berrington managed to score centuries in several important matches for Scotland. However, his performance was inconsistent at times, which was a source of frustration.

• In June 2010, during a match against India A, he displayed exceptional batting skills and scored 106 runs. His outstanding performance helped Scotland recover from a challenging position of 7/64 and enabled them to achieve the target of 277 runs in the match.

• In July 2011, he played a remarkable innings in an ODI, scoring 56 runs off just 23 balls, significantly contributing to Scotland’s largest-ever successful run chase. Scottish captain Preston Mommsen later referred to this innings as one of the most memorable performances.

• Following that, on 24 July 2012, he scored 100 runs off just 56 balls in a Twenty20 International match against Bangladesh. His exceptional performance led Scotland to victory with a 34-run margin. With that remarkable century, he became the seventh cricketer to score a hundred in a Twenty20 International and the first from an associate nation. Moreover, his performance led Scotland to achieve their first-ever victory against a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The century almost single-handedly secured the win for Scotland, as none of the other Scottish batsmen scored more than 19 runs in the match.

• In September 2014, he achieved his first-ever century in One Day Internationals (ODIs) during a match against Ireland. This exceptional performance secured his spot in Scotland’s team for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, despite the match ending in defeat for Scotland.

• During Scotland’s first match of the 2015 World Cup against the host nation, New Zealand, he played a vital role by scoring 50 runs in partnership with Matt Machan, who also scored a half-century. However, it was the only significant partnership in the innings, and Scotland was eventually bowled out for 142 runs. New Zealand comfortably chased down the target with more than half of their overs still remaining. During the World Cup, his highest score was 50 runs. In a group match against Sri Lanka, while bowling, his shoe disintegrated as he took his delivery stride in one ball.

  

• In a 2016 ODI match against the United Arab Emirates, he surpassed 1,000 ODI runs. In the same match, Preston Mommsen and Kyle Coetzer also reached the milestone of scoring 1,000 runs in ODIs. Before Berrington, only two Scottish cricketers had managed to reach this milestone of scoring 1,000 runs in ODIs.

  

• In January 2017, Berrington and Calum MacLeod created a historic moment by forming a record-breaking 127-run partnership during a T20I match against Hong Kong. This partnership became the highest-ever T20I partnership for Scotland. Berrington’s conventional batting style complemented well with MacLeod’s unorthodox strokeplay, contributing to their successful partnership.

• In June 2017, he achieved his career-best List A score of 110 runs during a match against Namibia.

  

• In January 2018, he took on the role of captain for Scotland during the 2017–18 United Arab Emirates Tri-Nation Series, marking his first international matches as a captain for the team. During the first two matches of the tournament against Ireland, Scottish captain Kyle Coetzer was unavailable as he was completing coaching qualifications. In his absence, Berrington took on the role of captain for Scotland’s team.

• In the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, he represented Scotland and made significant contributions. In their opening-day match against Afghanistan, he scored a half-century and played a crucial role in a national record 208-run third-wicket partnership with Calum MacLeod. Additionally, he scored 47 runs during a thrilling tie against Zimbabwe.

• In Scotland’s crucial match to qualify for the 2019 Cricket World Cup against the West Indies, Berrington faced a controversial dismissal as the umpire ruled him out leg before wicket. However, replays showed that the ball hit Berrington outside the line of the off stump, indicating he should not have been given out. Unfortunately, since the tournament did not use the Umpire Decision Review System to save costs, Scotland could not challenge the decision. As a result, Scotland lost the match by just four runs under the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method.

  

• In June 2019, he was chosen to represent the Edmonton Royals franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament.

• In the same month, Berrington was picked to join the Glasgow Giants team for the first-ever Euro T20 Slam cricket tournament. However, the tournament was cancelled in July.

• In September 2019, he was selected as part of Scotland’s squad for the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier tournament in the United Arab Emirates.

• In November 2020, he received a nomination for the ICC Men’s Associate Cricketer of the Decade award.

• In September 2021, he was appointed as the vice-captain of Scotland’s provisional squad for the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

• In June 2022, Berrington was named as the captain of the national team, after Kyle Coetzer stepped down from leading the side. In an interview, he talked about being chosen as the captain and said,
  

  I feel incredibly honoured and privileged to lead this team and represent my country. Having come through the Scottish system from a young age, I’m very proud to take on the role of men’s captain. We have an extremely skilful and talented group of players and a lot of experience in our squad but as a group we are always looking to find ways to improve and I’m looking forward to seeing the team continually move forward.”

• In September 2022, he led the 15-member squad for Scotland for the T20 World Cup in Australia.

• In December 2022, he became the first player to play in 100 One Day International (ODI) matches for Scotland.