Neil Killeen


Neil Killeen is a former English cricketer who has played for the cricket teams of Durham County Cricket Club, Marylebone Cricket Club and Combined Universities.
He began playing cricket aged ten, at Annfield Plain Cricket Club, playing at the various age groups and represented Durham at all ages and levels including First Class. He began his career with Durham as a schoolboy in 1992, when he was selected for the first team squad on a tour to Zimbabwe. He signed on a full contract with the club in 1995. He made his first-class debut in 1995 against the West Indies and he was awarded his county cap in 1999. He toured the Caribbean with Young England in 1994/95, and toured with the M.C.C. in 2000.
He is best known for his exploits in the one-day game and is currently the leading one-day wicket taker in the club's history, having taken 43 wickets in the 2002 season. He played his last game for Durham against the Kent Spitfires in a Clydesdale Bank 40 match on 4 September 2010, taking 3 wickets in a 31 run defeat. He has also qualified as a cricket coach.
In an interview at Percy Main Cricket Club in 2019, he expressed his support for children playing a lot of sport, saying "I'm a firm believer that kids should play a lot of sport." In the same interview, when he was asked about who was the most notorious pranker in the Durham dressing room, he said that there was a Durham squad member who kept cutting off the end of the other members' socks, saying "I have a story for you. There was an unidentified teammate of ours at Durham who kept cutting the end of the other players' socks off, and David Boon got really angry, way angrier than the others. But that could have meant it was him, we still don't know."
He is a supporter of Sunderland AFC of the Northern Football League.