France's Machion is now on the short list of ICC's man of the month
France plays cricket - this information is new to many. The French are football mad. Tennis, cycling and handball are also very popular. Rugby and basketball are also played. So say cricket?
Across the English Channel is the land of the 'fathers of cricket', and even though the French lived on the other side, cricket did not attract them that way. However, if there are cricketers like Gustave Macion, it doesn't take long for cricket to become popular in France!
Cricket has only been played at the Olympics once, and France won the silver medal for service—at the Paris Olympics on August 19, 1900. After 120 years, 11 months and 18 days, France got some place on the cricket map.
On August 5 last year, France played the first T20 international match in their history in the tri-series in Germany. The country became an associate member of the ICC during this period in 1998, and also played in the ICC Trophy in 2001. But France's name was written permanently on the pages of international cricket after a few more days.
France's Gustave Machion scored a century at the age of 18 years and 280 days against Switzerland in the European regional qualifiers for the 2024 T20 World Cup. Broke Hazratullah Zazai's record of youngest century in T20 International.
In the next match against Norway, McKeon once again broke the record book by scoring a century. This time as the first cricketer to record two consecutive centuries in international T20.
He also set the record for scoring the most runs. His performance has given France a permanent place on the map of international cricket. This time the border increased a little more.
McKeon has been shortlisted for the ICC Men's Cricketer of the Month. The 18-year-old French opener will compete with England's Jonny Bairstow and Sri Lanka's Prabat Jayasuriya. McKeon's quality is somewhat evident in this list—teams like Switzerland and Norway may not be established powers in international cricket, but scoring a century in two consecutive matches is no mean feat.
That's why McKeon has come up with Bairstow, who has changed his batting style by chasing runs in Test cricket for some time. The competition is with Sri Lanka's new spin hero.
McKeon also had a great start. He made his debut against the Czech Republic in the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup Europe regional qualifier. McKeon is having a colorful time after starting the campaign with 76 runs from 54 balls. Not only batting, but also got 4 wickets in 5 matches. Among them, he took 3 wickets for 27 runs in the match against Norway.
Bairstow, who was man-of-the-month in June, also started July well. Scored centuries in two consecutive innings against India at Edgbaston and created a run chase in England's second innings with aggressive batting.
He also scored runs in the ODI series against South Africa. He played an innings of 63 runs in the first match. He scored 90 in the first match of the T20 series. Sri Lankan spinner Prabat Jayasuriya took 5 and 4 wickets in two innings against Australia. He took a total of 17 wickets in the two-Test series against Pakistan. He also took 9 wickets in this series.
All in all, in the list of nominees for the best of the month, two are from established countries in international cricket. Another one is from a developing country, but he also has opportunities. If McKeon wins, it's also a win for all ICC partner countries.
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