Paul Joseph McMahon, an off spinner, played for Nottinghamshire at every level from Under 11s through to the first team. Having left Trinity Comprehensive School in Aspley the previous year, he made his County Championship debut in June 2002, replacing the dropped Kevin Pietersen in the team for Mick Newell’s first match in charge. Earlier that year, McMahon was – alongside Nadeem Malik, Bilal Shafayat and Samit Patel – one of four Nottinghamshire Academy graduates that represented England at the Under 19 World Cup in New Zealand. He captained England in an Under 19 Test and ODI series against India later that summer, winning the Man-of-the-Match award for his 8 wickets in the deciding final Test at Northampton.
For the following three years, McMahon combined his cricket with studying law at Wadham College, Oxford, where he won his Blue in 2003 and led the University in 2004 and 2005. He made three first-team appearances for Nottinghamshire in 2003, winning Young Player of the Season and taking five wickets in the County Championship match at Chelmsford in which relegation from Division 1 was confirmed. However, the presence of Stuart MacGill as overseas player and, from 2005, the signing of Graeme Swann restricted his first-team appearances over the following seasons. In 2006 he captained the second XI but only made four appearances for the first-team and was released at the end of the season.
After leaving Trent Bridge, McMahon played Minor Counties cricket in 2007 and spent the 2008 season with Warwickshire, but featured solely in the second XI for the Bears and did not add to his 52 wickets from 21 First-Class appearances. He did not play any First-Class cricket after 2008, joining international law firm Bird & Bird in London in 2009. From 2010 until 2015 he captained Cambridgeshire, leading them to Minor Counties Championship Eastern Division pennants in 2011 and 2013. In all, he took 247 wickets at an average of 17.2 for Cambridgeshire and won the Frank Edwards Trophy for the leading bowler in the Minor Counties in 2015.
Since 2015 he has worked in Dubai as Legal Counsel for the International Cricket Council and sits as a member of MCC’s Laws of Cricket Committee. He has played a handful of matches over the past three seasons in the Nottinghamshire Premier League for his home club, Wollaton, when work commitments have allowed.
September 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 566