Former Pakistan international Mohammad Wasim makes his Netherlands debut

Mohammad Wasim

Former Pakistan international Mohammad Wasim, who recently acquired Dutch nationality as a result of living in the Netherlands for the required number of years, made his debut for the Netherlands cricket team in the 2nd of 3 one-day matches against Scotland yesterday.

Wasim’s opportunity in the squad came as Peter Borren, the Netherlands captain, was ruled out due to the shoulder injury he was carrying, which got even worse due to a strained neck ahead of the game.

Wasim had started off his Pakistan career, at the age of 19, brilliantly with a century against New Zealand on his Test debut in 1996. The right-handed batsman was then tipped to achieve greater heights, but he failed to live up to the expectations as his limitations started surfacing.

The top order batsman made just 1 more Test hundred, an innings of 192 that came against Zimbabwe in Harare, from his remaining 17 Tests and subsequently was overlooked, as, with the likes of Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, Pakistan had some brighter talents coming up the ranks. His One Day International career followed an identical path.

Wasim, who has represented Pakistan in 18 Tests and 25 ODIs, last played for his country of birth in 2000. Disillusioned with the downward slope, he then moved to New Zealand in 2002-03 to play domestic cricket there before finally settling in the Netherlands.

Having played for Dutch clubs Sparta 1888 and Dosti Amsterdam, he has also made regular appearances for North Holland Hurricanes in the North Sea Pro-Series and represented Netherlands ‘A’ in the Continental T20 Championship.