Jeetan Patel

An Indian-origin orthodox off-spinner, born and brought up in Wellington, Jeetan Patel is a former New Zealand cricketer who had a successful stint at the international level but his period was cut short due to the presence of wily Daniel Vettori.

Jeetan was a promising young spinner who paved his way into the national team after featuring and performing well in the age group levels and the ‘A’ team. He played age-group cricket in Wellington at U-15, U-17, and U-19 levels and became the first player in twenty years to take 50 league wickets during his spell at the Bourton Road club and the first player ever to go on to play international cricket.

Jeetan made his ODI debut as a Supersub for New Zealand in the 4th ODI against Zimbabwe on August 31st, 2005. He replaced Craig McMillan for Zimbabwe’s innings and took 1/47. The following year, the Wellington-born spinner made his Test debut against South Africa in 2006 and was described as the long-term investment by John Bracewell who was the head coach of the Blackcaps at that time.

He reached the peak of his career in 2007 when he became a regular member of the Black Caps ODI and T20 teams. However, by the end of 2008, his career began to go on a downward spiral, and soon lost his place in the team and could never cement his place in the team.

Falling to make a comeback for his country, Jeetan made his county debut for Warwickshire in 2009 and had a memorable debut, scoring a century against Yorkshire. In 2014, Jeetan was named the most valuable player by winning the MVP award in England’s Professional Cricketers’ Association, and in 2015 Wisden named him one of its five cricketers of the year.

In June 2017, Jeetn Patel retired from international cricket alongside his countrymate Luke Ronchi and two years later in December 2019, he was appointed as the spin bowling coach for the World Cup-winning side, England.

(As of May 2021)