Adrian McLaren is a batsman who sometimes keeps wicket for Eagles and Griqualand West. He hails from a cricketing family: his father and uncle were both first-class medium-pacers for Griqualand, and his cousin Ryan is a team-mate at Eagles. McLaren started out as a wicketkeeper who batted in the lower middle order in 1998, but struggled to establish a first-team place with Griqualand. He converted himself into an opener towards the end of the 2003-04 season. The change worked wonders: he was Griqualand's top-scorer in the three-day provincial challenge for the next three years, and piled on big runs in the following two seasons as well. The runs took a little longer to flow in the one-day format, and it wasn't till the 2006-07 season that he started to dominate provincial attacks. Similar form in the next year pushed him into the Eagles one-day XI, where he slotted in as a middle-order batsman. He was part of their squad for the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 in 2009.
Siddarth Ravindran October 2009