James Neesham is an all-rounder from New Zealand. He was in the 2019 World Cup squad and was in the super over with Martin Guptill in the final of the 2019 World Cup.
Wiki/Biography
James Neesham was born on Monday, 17 September 1990 (age 29 years; as in 2019) in Auckland, New Zealand. His zodiac sign is Virgo. He did his schooling from the Auckland Grammar School, New Zealand. He considers himself as the look-alike of Chris Hemsworth. His nickname is Jimmy Neesham.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 6′ 2″
Eye Colour: Brown
Hair Colour: Brown
Family
James Neesham follows Christianity. Not much is known about his family.
Career
James Neesham started his career in 2011 by playing for the domestic cricket team, Auckland. He impressed everyone with his performance in the 50-over format. He played three innings and each time he scored more than 40 runs. He is also a bowler and he achieved one of his best scores against the Wellington Firebirds of 5 for 44 and 4 for 23 against Canterbury.
His performance led him to be selected in the New Zealand Twenty-twenty squad against South Africa. He performed well and was selected in the “Cricinfo Champions League T20 XI”. In the tournament, he was named the Man of the Match in one of the matches, and he was also named as the Find of the Tournament on the official website of the “Cricinfo Champions League”.
Neesham made his Test debut against India on 14 February 2014. He scored 137 runs in the match. He also became the highest-scoring debutant in the number 8 spot. His score helped New Zealand win the match against India.
Neesham was selected in the 2014 Indian Premier League (IPL) 7 by Delhi Daredevils. The next year, in the IPL 8, he was selected by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), but, he was not able to play a single match due to an injury. It led him to be dropped from the KKR squad next year.
In 2016 and 2017, he played for Derbyshire and the Kent County Cricket Club respectively, in the “NatWest T20 Blast” series. Neesham signed a one year contract with the Wellington Firebirds in June 2018. Interestingly, his career debut with Auckland was against the Wellington Firebirds in 2011. Neesham also became the New Zealand player with the highest number of runs in an over, he scored 34 runs in one over which included 5 sixes. He achieved this feat in a match against Sri Lanka on 3 January 2019.
In 2019, Neesham was named in New Zealand’s World Cup Squad. New Zealand’s first match in the 2019 World Cup coincidently was the 50th ODI match of Neesham’s career. During New Zealand’s match against Afghanistan in the 2019 World Cup, Neesham took his first international five-wicket haul. It led to Neesham completing his 50th ODI wicket.
Controversy
On 17 April 2019, James Neesham tweeted about a run-out for a match in the IPL in which MS Dhoni was involved. Dhoni had been declared as not-out by the third umpire during a run-out. Neesham posted a photo and tweeted-
I love how passionate some fans are about our sport. I have huge respect for MS but how anyone could see the below photo and say it’s not out it truly astounds me”
In the tweet, he claimed that Dhoni was out, and it only seemed he was not-out because of the wrong camera angle. Following his tweet, Indian fans bombarded his tweet with criticism and with reasons as to why Dhoni was not-out. A few days later, he deleted his earlier tweet about Dhoni, and he also posted another tweet, explaining as to why he deleted his tweet, and why does he not want to be a part of the discussion further-
Favourite Things
- Batsmen: MS Dhoni, Martin Guptill
- Bowler: Tim Southee
- Cuisine: Chinese
- Singer: Celine Dion
International Debut
- T20: 21 December 2012 against South Africa in Kingsmead, Durban, South Africa
- ODI: 19 January 2013 against South Africa in Boland Park, South Africa
- Test: 14 February 2014 against India in Basin Reserve, New Zealand
Facts
- James Neesham loves playing Golf and Rugby.
- He is against child labour and also supports many NGO’s who work against child labour.
- Neesham is a dog lover. He has also adopted a dog, and he calls himself his father.
- He is a basketball fan, and he often attends matches of the Los Angeles Lakers team.