Netherlands Cricket: The untold story

Netherlands cricketers come from different countries but their aims are similar

We’ve been shocked and pleasantly surprised with the way Netherlands played in the recently concluded World T20. It’s never easy for the associate sides to come into a major ICC tournament and make a name for themselves, more so when the conditions are alien to them. For a cricket team that has played majority of it’s cricket on the pitches that are favourable to bowling – with the ball swinging and seaming, the quality of cricket that Netherlands played on the slow and low pitches of Bangladesh is impeccable.

For those of you who don’t know – Netherlands cricket players understandably don’t have the desired infrastructure for cricket; hence cricket as their ONLY occupation is unreasonable. Therefore, it’s very shocking to note that these players do their different jobs when the team is not playing and then reconcile whenever there’s a tournament to follow or a cricket match to be played.

The only opportunity these players get to stay in practice is to play county cricket in England, which is even though competitive, it’s to be understood that in a team’s game, until and unless a team doesn’t mingle – it doesn’t matter how good an individual is. For this very reason, the team morale and the team confidence, the maturity level of the players, the understanding of each other’s game – is even more impressive from Netherlands team.

Majority of Netherlands’ players come from different parts of the world. Here’s a bit of detail about some of the experienced player’s profiles:

Peter Borren, the captain of the Netherlands team, was born and brought up in Christchurch, in New Zealand. He played for the domestic team of New Zealand i.e. Canterburry ‘A’. Further, he also got the opportunity to represent New Zealand in the U-19 team in the year 2001-02 and played alongside New Zealand’s currently playing cricketers in Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder. He later shifted to Netherlands and has been a vital part of their cricketing structure ever since.

Tom Cooper, someone who is easily recognized as the cricketer who has played Australian domestic cricket for quite a few years now. He’s represented Australia in the U19s, then played for South Australia and has been playing for Netherlands since 2010. His brother, Ben Cooper, also plays for Netherlands. Even though Ben Cooper hasn’t played Australian domestic cricket and has ONLY represented Netherlands so far, it’s explicable that he too grew up in Australia and decided to follow his brother’s footsteps and opted to play for Netherlands.

Stephan Myburgh, more recognized as someone who tore into South Africa’s world class bowling in Netherlands’ 2nd group stage match of the recently concluded World T20. Myburgh is someone who made his first-class debut in South African domestic circuit. Born in Transvaal, South Africa, Myburgh made his first-class and List-A debuts for Northerns vs North West, in 2006.

Ryan Ten Doeschate, regarded as the best player to have played for Netherlands, was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Averaging 67 in ODIs, a whopping 42.80 in T20s (in T20 leagues throughout the world), 46.90 in first class and 46.00 in List A (English County). That’s for his batting stats; in terms of bowling he’s very handy too.

Doeschate has 55 wickets in ODIs, 12 in T20, 182 in FC and 148 in List A. The followers of IPL will get to see Doeschate playing for KKR this season. Doeschate no longer plays for Netherlands, perhaps because he has the aim of representing England. He was selected as Essex’s captain for all the formats earlier this year, proving his importance for this county side.

Doeschate has played cricket throughout the world but majority of it in UK – English county, hence for a player of his caliber to represent Netherlands was a huge boost for the country’s cricket and hopefully, Netherlands will continue to have players of his caliber representing them.

These are some of the players that have had a huge role in Netherlands cricket over the last 7-8 years. As one can easily note, all these players come from different background, different countries and yet when they play on the field – the mutual understanding of the players matched with their cricketing talent really makes Netherlands standout from other Associate teams.

For a side like Netherlands, beating Ireland, getting very close to upset the world-class team of South Africa or be it the clinching victory over England, which will be remembered by the Netherlands fans for a long time – all these performances will take Netherlands cricket to a new and improved level. The future of Netherlands cricket looks very bright. This is just another story of a associate side, in which players come from different backgrounds but their aims are alike i.e. winning for their country and taking it’s cricket forward.