Gary Heatly spoke to the Scotland batter ahead of the matches against the Netherlands
Scotland’s Calum MacLeod became a father over lockdown and that has been keeping him busy away from the boundary edge, but the 32-year-old batter still has the desire to play cricket at the highest level and has a T20 World Cup in his sights.
MacLeod and his wife Laura welcomed son Finley into the world on December 27 and he admits that was “a blessing during a tough time for everyone.”
However, in recent times he has swapped the baby changing bag for his cricket bag and he has been working hard on his game in Kent where he is based and in Edinburgh with the national squad.
This week the Scotland squad are travelling to the Netherlands to play two ODIs against the hosts on Wednesday and Friday in Rotterdam.
The matches will be Scotland’s first competitive action since December 2019 when they took on the UAE in Dubai and will also mark the start of their road to the T20 World Cup which is currently scheduled to be in India in October.
“It has been a very busy few months family-wise, Finley arrived just before the turn of the year and then a few weeks ago we moved house, but that has kept me focused as cricket was slowly starting to make a return,” MacLeod, who famously scored 140 not out against England in an ODI victory in 2018, said.
“As these matches against the Netherlands have approached, I have been training hard down here in Kent with the guys at my new club Lordswood while I have made it up the road for quite a bit of the training block with the Scotland guys and everyone is in good spirits.
“We are all buzzing to get back into international cricket under head coach Shane Burger and new assistant coach Craig Wright who we all know well from over the years.
“After a year or so of inactivity it looks like with Scotland we will have a busy few months after these games, starting with more 50-over stuff and then moving into T20 preparation as the World Cup edges closer.
“Every match for Scotland matters and having missed out on playing for so long it just makes you realise how special playing for your country is.
“We want to put in good performances in Rotterdam to give us something to build from going forward.”
