Richie was born in Pretoria, South Africa and moved to Scotland at the age of 11. His secondary education began at Greenock Academy and after taking part in a kwik cricket tournament he was invited to join local cricket club Greenock CC.
Richie was soon involved in the Cricket Scotland junior programme at U13 level and progressed through the age groups and to the A team before being selected for the national side in 2008. Cricket has always been his passion and after leaving school he spent winters travelling abroad to play in various cricket academies around the world in order to pursue his dream of becoming a professional cricketer in Scotland.
This dream was realised in 2009 when Richie gained one of the first professional contracts to be given out by Cricket Scotland, a year after the introduction of contracts. Since then he has been an ever present in the squad and has seen the continually transformation of the professional game. This experience gives him ideal knowledge to help support the interests of all professional cricketers in Scotland.
Having joined Clydesdale cricket club in 2014 he has taken the opportunity over the past two years to gain work experience outside of playing professional cricket. He was given the opportunity by Prosperity Financial Solutions – sponsors of Clydesdale cricket club – where has been working hard to gain new skills in the financial sector. Since his time there he has managed to gain the CF6 qualification module on his path to becoming a qualified mortgage advisor.
He is extremely passionate about Scottish cricket and is determined to continually improve the sport on and off the field. He hopes through his experiences within the Scottish set up and being involved in the successful launch of the SCA he can continue to drive the progress of the game forward and endeavour to support the team in all aspects of their practise.