Hailing from Johannesburg, Transvaal in South Africa, Matt McGillivray is a right-arm medium fast bowler who bats in the lower-middle order. McGillivray has taken more than 100 wickets in first-class cricket at a bowling average of less than 20. His batting is not bad either, as the right-hander has scored three fifties in the format. Matt's List A debut came against South Western Districts in 2010. In that match, although McGillivray went wicket-less, he ended up being the second highest scorer for Gauteng.

One of Matt's remarkable all-round performances came against Western Province in the early part of 2018 where he scored 60 & 47 respectively in the Sunfoil 3-Day Cup at Cape Town. He also bagged three wickets in the first innings apart from scoring more than 100 runs in the entire match. The bowling all-rounder was included in the Highveld Lions squad for the 2016–17 Sunfoil Series.