Ryan McLaren (born 9 February 1983) is a former South African professional cricketer, who played in all formats at international level.

[2] McLaren made his first-class debut for Free State (now called Knights) in October 2003, taking two wickets and scoring 25 runs.

[7][8] McLaren had been called up for the South African One-day side for the Kenya and Bangladesh series, but had to withdraw, because Kent did not release him from his Kolpak contract.

He also won man of the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on 17 April; he scored 40 while opening with Sachin Tendulkar and took 1 for 21 with the ball.

After not being bought during the auction in 2011, McLaren was chosen by Kings XI Punjab as a replacement player after Stuart Broad and Dimitri Mascarenhas pulled out due to injury.