Macneil Hadley Noronha Height, Age, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Macneil Hadley Noronha

• Macneil Hadley Noronha hails from a Mangalurian family in the Karnataka coast.

• His father runs a business in Dubai and they resided there during his childhood.

• Noronha was born in UAE and lived in Dubai for most of his childhood. He was called to Cricket at a young age.

• He was spotted by Irfan Sait, the director of the Karnataka Institute of Cricket (KIOC) in Bengaluru by the time he was 11.

• In those initial years, he started making trips to Bengaluru from time to time for short training sessions at KIOC, travelling between Dubai and Bengaluru several times.

• Sait was impressed enough to recommend the family consider a permanent move to India. Beyond Under-19 level, there was no sense of structure within UAE cricket.

• Noronha was a talent that could have gone further, but lacked the environment. Sait informed the family that the boy would do better in Bengaluru.

• There was some difficulty in making the decision. It divided the family between two countries. Noronha’s father stayed back in Dubai to keep the business running.

• Noronha and his older sister, along with his mother, went to Bengaluru. Even after getting married, his sister lived away from her husband in Dubai to be with the family.

• Noronha’s mother, on her own, did all the arrangements in Bengaluru, taking him to the stadium and bringing him home every day.

• The move came to be permanent around the time of 13 years. Noronha joined REVA University in Bengaluru and started training under Sait at KIOC on full time basis.

• He made his way on the age group circuit in Karnataka, and climbed steadily through the ranks.

• His bat even had a verse on it, Isaiah 60:22, which is a verse of his strong religious faith that helped him through the tough times of his early career.

• On Yuvraj Singh‘s retirement day from international cricket in 2019, Noronha was about to take part in a private tournament semifinal.

• Before the match, he approached Sait, who had said that he wanted to pay a homage to his idol Yuvraj Singh by hitting six sixes in an over.

• Sait informed Noronha that the match was a semi and the team cannot afford to take the risk. Noronha chose to do it anyway.

• He hit six sixes in that over, took the team into the final and they won the final as well.

• He remained a regular player for Karnataka at the under-23 category level and in the years thereafter.

• For a while, he left form behind, though. His confidence level was low and he didn’t score big for almost 14-15 innings.

• Rohit Sabharwal, assistant coach to the under-23 team of Karnataka, told him that when he was on the field, his feelings do not matter. He was only allowed to concentrate on batting.

• Noronha held on to those words. He was the acumen of the moment in 2024-25 C.K. Nayudu Trophy.

• He took his turn for Karnataka under 23, and put up two triple centuries in the series, one against Uttarakhand and another against Tripura.

• He was the top run scorer in the tournament, with 1,037 runs, in eight games.

• The performance got him a call up to the Rest of India Under-23 squad to face C.K. Nayudu Trophy winners Punjab.

• The BCCI honoured his contribution at the Naman Awards by awarding him the MA Chidambaram Trophy for being the top scorer in the 2024-25 C.K. Nayudu Trophy.

• He also made his debut for Karnataka in the senior Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy team, which he had played in three T20 games.

• Noronha also packed up the bags for Mangaluru Dragons in the Maharaja Trophy T20 tournament, where he added some ball and bat to the franchise’s victory.

• The IPL franchise club of Kolkata Knight Riders in early 2026 invited him for trials, and so did the other IPL teams Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings but he went unsold in the auction.

• Ramakrishna Ghosh was playing for CSK in their match with Mumbai Indians on 3 May 2026 and got injured in his right foot and was taken out for the season.

• CSK moved quickly. Noronha received a call around 4 pm on the day, while he was in his own home. He was told by CSK that he will be part of the team next day.

• CSK picked him up for INR 30 lakh (base price) as a replacement for Ghosh.