Boyd Rankin

William Boyd Rankin (born 5 July 1984) is a Northern Irish former cricketer who played international cricket for Ireland, and briefly also played for England.

He is a right-arm medium-fast bowler.

He is the brother of fellow cricketer David Rankin.

Born in Derry, Rankin is a tall bowler who stands at 6 ft 8 inches and has a distinctive bouncing action in his bowling.

Rankin revealed in an interview that his action is modelled on bowlers like Curtly Ambrose and Glenn McGrath who "hit the deck from just back of a length outside off stump".

He studied agriculture at Harper Adams University College in Shropshire, during which time he worked on his batting technique.

During his two-season stint at Middlesex, from 2004 to 2005, Rankin played several times for the second XI but failed to break into the first team.

In an effort to experience more first team cricket, he signed a deal with Derbyshire for the 2006 season, encouraged by Mike Hendrick, Derbyshire's bowling coach.

Although Rankin played a first team match and a Pro40 match in which he took a wicket with his first over, his season was prematurely cut short by a side strain.

Derbyshire renewed his contract for the 2007 English season, though his opportunities were limited due mainly to injury.

He played just three first-class matches taking 10 wickets at an average of 29.20 with best figures of 4/41 which was against his old county, Middlesex; in that match he finished with his best first-class match figures of 8/121.

He also played five one day matches taking 4 wickets at an average of 50.50 with best figures of 2/56.

At the end of the 2007 season, Rankin turned down a new contract with Derbyshire in favour of a two-year contract with Warwickshire.

Rankin explained his choice as a difficult one, but the opportunity of working with Allan Donald was too good to miss.

He was contracted to play in the controversial Indian Cricket League for the Kolkata Tigers; fellow Irishman, Niall O'Brien also participated in the tournament.

Rankin jeopardised his season when in April 2008 he injured himself during fielding practice before a County Championship match against Worcestershire.

He dived to stop a ball and landed awkwardly on his shoulder, suffering a SLAP tear to his right shoulder.

He underwent an operation and was expected to be on the sidelines for about six months.

After just four months, Rankin was back playing cricket.

In August 2008, he made his debut for Warwickshire in a first-class match against Essex.

He finished with figures of 4/80 in a drawn match as Warwickshire only bowled once.

He finished the season with 12 first-class wickets for Warwickshire in five matches at an average of 30.16, and did not play any one-day matches for Warwickshire.

Speaking in October 2008 about his first season with Warwickshire and being coached by Allan Donald, Rankin said "He [Donald] doesn't seek to make many technical changes during the season – that's more for the winter. It's more about the mental side of the game, how to work a batsman over, how to think more about the game, how to work batsmen out and take more wickets".

At the end of the 2008 season, Warwickshire secured promotion from the Second Division of the County Championship to the First.

Having generally come on as first or second change bowler for Warwickshire in 2008, at the start of the 2009 season Rankin was entrusted with the new ball and opened the bowling with Chris Woakes.

In 2009 Rankin impressed Ashley Giles, Warwickshire's director of cricket, with his bowling.

Giles commented that "[Rankin]'s got great attributes – he's tall, he can bowl fast, the ball bounces from nowhere ... We've just got to keep him fit".

In August 2012, Rankin announced that he would cease playing for Ireland, with the hope of one day playing for the English team.

He debuted for England against New Zealand in a T20 match on 25 June 2013, and later played one Test for England during the 2013-14 Ashes series in Australia.

With few prospects of a return to the England team, Rankin confirmed in December 2015 that he would commit to playing for Ireland in the upcoming 2016 ICC World Twenty20.

He has subsequently represented Ireland in both 20 and 50-over formats.

He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Ireland's first ever Test match, against Pakistan, in May 2018.

In December 2018, he was one of nineteen players to be awarded a central contract by Cricket Ireland for the 2019 season.

In July 2019, he was selected to play for the Belfast Titans in the inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam cricket tournament.

However, the following month the tournament was cancelled.

In August 2019, he joined Derbyshire Falcons for the 2019 t20 Blast.

In January 2020, he was again awarded a central contract from Cricket Ireland, the first year in which all contracts were awarded on a full-time basis.

On 21 May 2021, Rankin announced his retirement from international and inter-provincial cricket.

His performances in for Ireland's U-19s and the Ireland A team to attracted the attention of county scouts and prompted several offers of trials.

In an interview, Rankin stated that he chose to join Middlesex "because of the Irish connection, with Ed Joyce and (Eoin) Morgan there, I wanted to be some place where I knew a few faces".