CRICKET in the Netherlands has been around for almost as long as the sport itself. The national association was founded in 1883. It is suggested that the sport was introduced into the country during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries cricket was one of the most popular sports. The same cannot be said today. Cricket is still a sport that has a foothold in the Netherlands, but it isn’t in the top 20 most popular pastimes.
It has a pretty steady playing base, with most agreeing that the number of active cricketers is somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 players. When you consider that, it is remarkable that the Dutch have done so well. They have competed at every ICC Trophy since its inception. In theory, and it will probably remain a theory, they could qualify for Test status if the plans the ICC has mooted about promotion of the top associates become a reality.
So how have the Netherlands been so consistently competitive? How is it that they became and remained the top associate side for so long? More importantly, why have they started to fall back into the chasing pack? At the 2015 World Cup the Dutch won’t be there. Instead the newcomers of Afghanistan, Nepal and Papua New Guinea are starting to catch up and overtake the Netherlands. As a result of failing to finish in the top four of the World Cup qualifier in early 2014 they lost their ODI status.
There has been success in the Twenty20 format; most notably the twin wins over England in the World Twenty20s in 2009 and 2014 and the incredible run chase against Ireland that saw them score 193 in less than 14 overs. Despite this success on a global stage cricket is not gaining recognition or increasing playing numbers. Competition from other sports, a small population of just over 16m and, perversely, its disappearance from terrestrial TV in the UK have all had an impact. Most Dutch households have the BBC, and when the British national broadcaster televised cricket matches there was a chance that you could stumble across a game in the Netherlands. Now cricket has disappeared behind the Rupert Murdoch paywall, that is no longer the case.
Are the Dutch going to become the forgotten associate nation? As money and publicity is poured into cricket in Afghanistan, as the player base in Nepal and Papua New Guinea grows, are the Dutch going to fall further behind the rest of those that are aspiring to full membership of the ICC? Have we seen the peak of Dutch cricket, or is there a chance that once again we will come to see them as one of the best sides outside of the full member clique?
Dutch cricket is a small world. When you start to speak with people involved in cricket in the country it becomes very clear that they all know each other. If you are somebody that goes along to watch Dutch cricket you will have had a beer with the players. It is a community in every sense of the word, and with close-knit communities comes politics. One of those most high-profile events took place at the World Twenty20 in 2014.
Tim Gruijters, a 22-year-old member of the World Twenty20 squad, was all set to take part in the event. The squad had been announced and the details lodged with the tournament organisers. The only way that any amendments could be made would be in the case of injury to one of those in the 15-man squad. Just before the tournament began, news filtered through that Tom Cooper, a Dutch-qualified batsman who is based in Australia, became available. New South Wales were able to release him earlier than planned. The issue was the squad was decided. Cooper, a top-order batsman and off-break bowler, has represented Australia A. There was no doubt that he would have improved the team. Gruijters said there was a plan put in place to get Cooper in the squad. He was the man to make way.
In a YouTube video that he posted just as the Dutch campaign in Bangladesh was commencing, he was unequivocal in his condemnation of how he had been treated. ‘I would have played in the Dutch cricket team had it not been for the fact that the Dutch coaching staff decided to bend the rules, act against the spirit of cricket and basically cheat.’
The plan as described by Gruijters was a simple one. He had a long-standing back problem, something that he had played with for a number of years. In order for the ICC to sign off on any replacement from within the squad it needed to have medical evidence of an injury. Gruijters said he was ‘forced and bullied’ into getting a scan done. It came as no surprise that the scan showed an issue, and the details were sent to the ICC. It signed off on the replacement. Cooper became a full member of the squad and Gruijters was sent home.
The KNCB denied that this was how the incident took place. Instead it say, that it just replaced an injured player with a fit one, a move that the ICC has confirmed as being completely within the rules. Even if you believe Gruijters’s version of events, and it is compelling, you could debate between now and the end of time as to whether the KNCB did anything wrong in looking to improve its side.
The larger issue is the one of homegrown players versus talent that has been brought in from outside the Dutch set-up. The Netherlands actually have more native-born players than many associate nations. Despite this, in the defeat of England in their last game of the World Twenty20 there were just two Dutch-born players in the side, Pieter Seelaar and Ashan Malik.
That is not to say that all the others in the side have no Dutch connection. As ever in the world of modern international sport there are in essence three types of player. There are those who were born in the country, like Seelaar and Malik. There are those who may have been born elsewhere but learned the game in that country, like Wesley Barresi, and to an extent Peter Borren. Then there are the out-and-out imports. That would include Tom Cooper, but also Mickey Swart and Timm van der Gugten, cricketers who have used the Dutch side as a springboard for success.
Captain Peter Borren is aware of this and said he would like to see 11 Dutch-born, or Dutch-produced, cricketers in the playing side. He is quick to point out that where someone is born is less important to him than where they learned their cricket. Borren himself was born and raised in New Zealand, although his family is Dutch. He made it into the New Zealand Under-19 side but he said he doesn’t feel like he had any real coaching while he was in New Zealand. His game only developed after he arrived in the Netherlands at the age of 18. By the time Borren played a List A game in New Zealand, he was doing so as a Dutch overseas player.
This is not the same as someone who merely flies in for international games and then departs again. Borren wants the Netherlands to reach the point where they no longer require those players, but at present they are needed to make his side competitive.
Pieter Seelaar is a Dutch-born player who has been representing the Netherlands for a decade. For him the equation is a simple one: if the player who jets in for the big games gives you something a player in the Netherlands does not, then you pick him. Seelaar wants to win; after all that is what a professional sportsman is supposed to do. That is not to say he is a massive fan of jet-set players, but he understands their worth.
Perhaps the best example of a player who has come into the side from elsewhere and made an impact is Ryan ten Doeschate. Everyone who has been involved in the Dutch side can’t praise him highly enough, and this is despite him not appearing in a full international since the 2011 World Cup.
Ten Doeschate has moved on to bigger and better things but he did his bit.
His record for the Netherlands is remarkable. In List A games for the Dutch he averages 65, in first-class matches for them his average is 142. In 12 first-class innings for the Netherlands he passed 100 on seven occasions. He played two seasons in the Netherlands but for most of the time he was a Dutch international he was plying his trade elsewhere.
Tom Cooper, that man who was inadvertently at the centre of the World Twenty20 controversy, is one of those who came to Dutch cricket late. He didn’t even know playing for the Netherlands was a possibility; he only applied for a Dutch passport because he wanted to travel easily in and out of Europe without visas. He was playing for a club side in Scotland when he got a phonecall.
‘It just so happened that the club I played for in Dundee, the Dutch coach at the time, Peter Drinnen, had played there about ten years prior to me being there,’ Cooper told me. ‘He had stayed in touch with all the hierarchy at the club.
‘I averaged 100 for the season, and somehow the word got to him that I had come in on a Dutch passport. Out of the blue I got a voice message during the night saying, “Have you ever thought of coming over and playing in Holland?” It hadn’t even crossed my mind.’
It wasn’t just a case of turning up and getting a spot in the national team. He was invited over to play a season in the Netherlands and was an immediate success. ‘They didn’t want to just pick me straight into the side, because obviously there is a bit of controversy regarding non-Dutch-born players.’
To avoid any ill feeling Cooper said it was important to get to play in Dutch domestic cricket. ‘I organised with one of the clubs through the KNCB for me to come over and play the season. For me to be there for the year and seeing how that went, with the intention to get into the Dutch set-up.’
The fact remains that most of these overseas internationals give far more than they take from associate cricket. Their talent and experience makes associate nations more successful, and success is important in growing the game. Not only do on-field wins bring more ICC and government funding, they also generate ‘buzz’. Wins bring coverage, coverage brings people to the game. The more people involved in the sport the more chance you have of finding the next Dutch-born superstar. When ten Doeschate orchestrated a win against England at Lord’s it made the national news in the Netherlands. Perhaps that bulletin will encourage a few more kids to give the sport a go.
Players representing a nation that is not the one of their birth is hardly new. It has been a fixture of international cricket for as long as internationals have been played. In the same way, Dutch club cricket has a history of employing overseas pros. One of those was Bajan Nolan Clarke. He was playing first-class cricket for Barbados when he was approached about going to the Netherlands as a coach in 1977. He said his first summer in the role was a nightmare. At that time coaches were not allowed to play, so he sat on the sidelines ‘like a football manager’ unable to pick up a bat or bowl a ball.
He returned for the 1978 season as a player-coach. Dutch cricket at that time was in need of some modernisation. The cricket being played was not of the standard you would see on the club grounds of Barbados, but Clarke said that was as much to do with the players in the West Indies knowing the game. They had grown up immersed in it. The same was not the case in the Netherlands.
In Barbados they ‘played cricket with passion and never sit back’. The cricket in the Netherlands was formulaic. Clarke said there was no attempt to read the game. ‘Bowling changes were made by the number of overs a bowler had bowled, or time. It didn’t matter what the score was or who was batting.’
He tried to change things but there was resistance. He tried to explain that you needed to use the skill of the players that you had available to make the most of the resources that you had. He attempted to instil this approach. He said that this more laid-back way of letting the game unfold is still prevalent in Dutch cricket. It has improved with the addition of overseas players, but for Clarke there is still a way to go before the cricketers at Dutch clubs have the same instinctive feel for tactics that he grew up with in Barbados.
The professionalism that has started to take root at the highest level will certainly help. There are now five centrally contracted Dutch players including Seelaar and Borren. They spend their time running clinics in schools, working with the A side and age group teams. And training. Lots of training. With that level of commitment comes improvement.
However, for Dutch cricket to continue to do well in the ever more competitive world of associate cricket, they need to expand the playing base, especially among Dutch nationals. The KNCB has done a fantastic job finding and integrating players from overseas who have embraced the Dutch set-up. Nurturing Peter Borren from an 18-year-old prospect to a fine cricketer and excellent captain has been a real achievement. Making the most of Ryan ten Doeschate while he was available did plenty to raise the standard of the cricket that the Dutch play, even after he had moved on to the Indian Premier League and all its associated riches.
The longevity of cricket as a sport in the Netherlands is about expanding its footprint among locals. There are more than 20 sports that have a greater level of popularity than cricket. How cricket moves up that list is a difficult question. Most cricket clubs in the Netherlands are also football or hockey clubs. As those seasons get longer the time that cricket can be played gets shorter. It is hard enough to convince players to give up the time needed to play the game without the opportunities to take part becoming less frequent.
One reason for the erosion of cricket from the Dutch public consciousness is that it is a lot harder to watch it. It is not on terrestrial TV. It is not going to be stumbled across while you channel-surf. You would need to watch it through a pirate stream or by having a United Kingdom TV package, something that is also on the wrong side of the law. There are a few Indian or Pakistani channels that might show the odd bit of the sport but it is unlikely that a Dutch subscriber would have access to these channels. If you want to watch cricket you have to go looking for it; it won’t find you.
Overcoming these challenges to get more people from outside the immigrant community and existing cricket families involved in the game is the biggest issue that the KNCB faces. It says its goal is to have the vast majority of players homegrown by 2018. There is work to be done.
At the World Cup qualifier in New Zealand in January of 2014 it all went wrong for the Dutch. They were entered in to the tournament as they failed to finish in the top two in the World Cricket League and therefore needed to compete with other associates for the final two World Cup spots. They were one of the favourites to qualify from this event. They had already made it to the World Twenty20 in a tournament in the UAE just three months earlier, and with the big guns of Ireland and Afghanistan already certain of a place in the World Cup the chance was there for the taking.
The news that World Cup qualification was on the line did not filter through until two matches into the World Cricket League. The ICC hadn’t told the nations that were competing. Peter Borren said that had they known that was the prize, the team they put out in those first two games would have been a lot stronger. As it was they lost both of those matches to Scotland and were playing catch-up for the rest of the tournament. Afghanistan finished just one point ahead of them to seal a trip to Australia and New Zealand. If they had beaten Scotland in both those games they could have got automatic qualification. Instead, the Netherlands were condemned to the qualifying event.
Borren is keen to point out that he doesn’t feel hard done by, and he doesn’t sound like a man who feels the world is against him. Rather, he attempts to give an honest assessment of where things went wrong for his side. Several times he said, ‘I am not trying to make excuses.’ And he isn’t. He feels that his side should have been at the World Cup and he wants to explain why that didn’t happen.
The Netherlands finished fourth in the World Cricket League, level on points and with a higher run rate than the UAE, but the Emirati side finished above them as they had more wins. The Dutch would have finished above the UAE but for a tied game with Ireland where a last-ball six saw them draw level with, but not pass, the opposition. They could have made it, they fell just short.
So to the World Cup qualifier. To make it to the World Cup the Dutch needed to finish in the top two; they needed to be in the top four to keep their ODI status. They failed to do both, a massive blow for all concerned. That this status was taken away by them losing just two matches, and failing to reach the next stage by a run rate difference of just 0.03, made it even harder to take.
The loss of ODI status was described by captain Borren as ‘pretty crucial’. Even having to go to the qualifier was disappointing for Borren. ‘In the end when you have three years of playing pretty consistent cricket and only just miss out on the top two, you then have to go to a tournament where not only is your ODI status riding on it, qualification for the World Cup is riding on it. You lose two games and you are in Division Two of the World Cricket League, I can’t help but feel a little aggrieved about it.’
Again, Borren was clear that he was not trying to make excuses. They should have played better but it is clearly still something that hurts. Many would say the Dutch side is better than the status they now have – and they have a point. The issue is the amount of time it will take them to regain that status. Many of the players in the Dutch set-up could well be at the end of their careers by the time that ODI status has returned to them.
This hierarchy of cricket formats and status is at the heart of the life of associate nations. They are playing at the behest of those who are full members of the ICC. No matter how low the standards of the teams from full member nations fall, they will not lose that status. Bangladesh have lost match after match in the last few years, being defeated by full and associate members alike. They have ODI and Test status in perpetuity. The Dutch have two bad days and they have it taken away from them despite consistently competing throughout the preceding three years.
Sport should be about meritocracy. This is rarely the case with cricket.
‘To have all of that fall apart from under us in one afternoon, I see that as a poor investment from the ICC with the Netherlands being a high performance country,’ Borren said.
Seelaar can’t hide his disappointment when you ask him about it. The first word that he uses is ‘devastating’. He follows that up with saying that things didn’t go their way. That can happen in sport, and just like his captain he is very clear that no one was to blame but themselves. Again the frustration is one of men who have worked hard and come so close, only to see the prize slip away at the very last moment. A slip that caused a catastrophic tumble.
The loss of status was not only one that impacted on fixtures and statistics in the record books. In the four years after you have qualified for a World Cup the ICC gives associate nations a $1m grant. The Dutch are no longer entitled to this.
While in recent years ODIs have been a source of disappointment and frustration, in Twenty20 cricket the Dutch have had some stellar successes. There was the last-ball victory over England at Lord’s at the 2009 World Twenty20, when a Stuart Broad overthrow gave them the win, but perhaps the biggest rollercoaster they had to endure was at the same event in 2014. They finished with yet another success against England but that wasn’t the most remarkable thing they achieved in that tournament.
For the 2014 event, the ICC had made it even harder for associates to reach the biggest stage. Those who had already qualified for the World Twenty20 were expected to qualify again in another round that was jammed on to the beginning of the tournament. In this ‘qualifying round for qualifiers’, the associate nations that had fought hard to get to the tournament then had to re-qualify by facing each other and Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. As ever when the top associates faced the bottom full members it was pretty close. Ireland beat Zimbabwe, Hong Kong defeated Bangladesh, but the fireworks came in the last game of Group B.
Ireland needed a win to get through to the next round. The Netherlands needed to win big to go through due to a poor net run rate. A close win for the Netherlands would see Zimbabwe qualify to the next round. For supporters of associate cricket a poor and undercooked Zimbabwe making it through would be a disaster. Bangladesh had already qualified so if neither of these two teams made it the event became a full member only affair and further ammunition for the anti-expansion lobby. Why bother having qualifiers if none of them make it through to the main event anyway, they would cry.
Ireland batted first, and a flat pitch, some poor bowling and short boundaries saw them motor to 189/4 off their 20 overs. Ashan Malik had managed to keep things tight but other than that all the Dutch bowlers were given some serious tap by the Irish batsmen. It was the end of the Netherlands’ involvement for sure. They would need to chase down 190 off 14.2 overs, a rate of well in excess of 13 runs an over. Even on the flat Sylhet pitch that seemed ludicrous. Thirteen an over is achievable but not for that length of time, and not from the very start of the innings.
What happened next is an excellent allegory of what you can achieve when you have nothing to lose. Self-belief becomes more important the higher you go in sport. Everyone at the top level has talent; they wouldn’t be there without it. It is those who have the most belief in themselves that are able to harness that talent when the pressure is on.
At the halfway stage the feeling in the dressing room was one of disappointment. The Netherlands had not bowled well. Peter Borren, captain that day, was frustrated with the performance his side had put in. ‘I could sit here and say I was full of confidence and really bullish about going out there and chasing those runs. But I was pretty disappointed with the execution with the ball. It really was a case that we had nothing to lose.’
Pieter Seelaar said he was ‘gutted’ as they left the field at the close of the Ireland innings. The plan had been to win the toss, bowl, restrict them to as low a total as possible and see where they ended up. Chasing 140 or 150 was the target they had in mind off 14 overs but 190 was too many to even dream.
They decided to push Borren up to open, a brave move that was the coach’s call. The thinking was that the Irish would open the bowling with two spinners and that would suit the way that Borren plays, especially slog-sweeping over the leg side. It was as he was walking down the steps to open the innings that the talk of winning was brought up. Borren’s opening partner, Stephan Myburgh, told his captain that they were going to win the game. Borren said he didn’t believe it but he knew that his team would go down swinging.
The next 14 overs produced some of the most remarkable cricket that you will ever see. The Dutch were 91/1 off the first six overs. Myburgh reached his half-century off just 17 balls. It was the joint second fastest fifty in Twenty20 internationals. Only Yuvraj Singh’s effort against England, where he hit 36 off a Stuart Broad over, has been faster.
Seelaar was next to Michael Swart in the dressing room and neither of them could quite believe what was happening. They weren’t laughing at Ireland but they couldn’t stop smiling at what they were watching. In the second over of the Dutch innings Myburgh hit Andy McBrine for 25 runs. Seelaar mentioned he was joking about it with Swart. ‘Imagine we do this for 13 more overs,’ they said to each other.
‘After the Powerplay you start to think, “Wow, could we?”’ Seelaar said. ‘But we still needed to go for eight overs at 12 an over. It is just sort of ridiculous. But the moment I knew we were actually going to do it, where I started believing it was going to happen, was when Cooper hit Dockrell for four sixes in the 11th over. It was the sense of belief from the guys that we could do it.’ It could have been different. Cooper was dropped by Ed Joyce when he had scored just one run. For this to happen, everything had to go the Netherlands’ way.
Anton Roux, the coach, made it clear that he didn’t want to hear any negativity. They were going to go hard and go for qualification. Just getting a consolation win against the Irish was not good enough. Seelaar admitted it was not some big speech, the time between innings in a Twenty20 is short, but Roux made it clear that he wanted everyone ready to bat, both mentally and in terms of having their pads on.
They won the game and qualified for the main event with three balls to spare. The scene as the not-out batsmen, Wesley Barresi and Ben Cooper, were swamped by their team-mates was of pure joy. This was as close as cricket gets to a side doing the impossible. To do what the Dutch did with so much riding on it, to have the belief that they could even attempt it, was one of the defining moments of any World Twenty20. If those running the game have their way, teams like the Netherlands could be banished from further global events. The game would be poorer for that, spiritually if not financially.
The Irish team felt like they were just observers watching something that they didn’t have control over. Tim Murtagh, the man off whom the winning runs were hit, said he has tried not to even think about it. It was just one of those things. ‘I’ve tried to scrub that from my mind completely. I just remember the ball flying everywhere. They got off to such a good start I was struggling to see how we were going to claw back in. It was one of those days when everything they tried came off.’
For the Irish captain, William Porterfield, the fact that the Dutch had to achieve their target in 14 overs made the difference. Having to go hard from ball one meant that they didn’t have to build up to the target by setting a base. They had absolute freedom, which gave them a chance to achieve the near impossible. ‘They came out there and struck the ball very cleanly. The fact that it happened in 14 overs hurts, but it was a flat wicket and a small ground. If you gave them 20 overs to chase it, it might have been a different story. They just came out with a few lads who strike the ball very well and they did that.’
When the main draw came the performance of the team was tinged with disappointment. Yes they beat a hapless England, and they defeated them comprehensively. However the games against Sri Lanka and South Africa were heartbreaking. Against Sri Lanka they were bowled out for 39, and in the aftermath the overriding sentiment from Borren and his side was one of embarrassment and a feeling that they had let the other associates down. Those who are happy to see cricket remain a cabal were able to say that this performance was the reason to keep the game a closed shop.
For Borren and his team the frustration was that they lost so many wickets to the seamers first up. There is nothing in the bowling of Angelo Mathews and Nuwan Kulasekara that the Dutch players had not seen before. Despite this they were four wickets down for just nine runs. This left the middle and lower order exposed against the spin of Ajantha Mendis and the sling of Lasith Malinga. The rest of the innings was a sad procession of wickets as the Netherlands recorded the lowest total in Twenty20 internationals, all out for 39.
Despite this embarrassment, this is not the result that upsets those that were part of the squad. That real regret is reserved for the game against South Africa where the team were in a position to win comfortably and then threw it away. That hurts a lot more than losing a game that you were never close to competing in from the very beginning.
Against the South Africans the Dutch needed less than five an over at the halfway stage of their innings with the experienced pair of Borren and Tom Cooper at the crease. Here, self-belief was the enemy of the Dutch just as it had been their friend against Ireland. South Africa’s Dale Steyn seems capable of winning games of cricket just through strength of will, and this game was no different, but it was the leg spin of Imran Tahir that did the most damage. The game should have been won.
Borren sees the Sri Lanka game as an ‘anomaly’. ‘These things can happen, and it happened, and on that day we were really very poor. For me I didn’t even think about the Sri Lanka game after that evening. The next day it was gone. I didn’t think about being embarrassed, well only very briefly on that evening. But that South African game I will never forget.’
Being beaten is part of sport, and something that all those that have played any sport at any level are used to. The losses that really hurt are the games that should have been won. The Netherlands were not outplayed by South Africa. They lost the game; the South Africans didn’t win it.
‘It doesn’t even matter that we beat England, it was nice, but we obviously should have won two of those games,’ Borren said. ‘Even in the New Zealand game we had them in a bit of strife and we could have won that game too. If it wasn’t for Brendon McCullum we would have, and he admitted that too. To play that kind of cricket after the Sri Lankan game was pretty awesome. But to lose seven for 50 in ten overs against South Africa, and also the nature of the dismissals, that South Africa game was probably my most disappointing day in a Dutch shirt.’
The last game was against England, and the Dutch side were confident of beating them again, just as they had at Lord’s five years earlier. While the win at Lord’s was a massive surprise for most spectators, the Dutch were much more confident for the game in Chittagong. The English were on the back of a horror winter. They had been humiliated in the Ashes and the limited-overs games that followed. There were a few new faces, but there was uncertainty over the future of Ashley Giles as coach and the side was a mix of inexperience and those jaded by Australian failure.
Despite those challenges England had actually performed reasonably well leading up to the Dutch game. They were hampered by rain when well placed to challenge New Zealand. They lost that game by the Duckworth Lewis method. They beat Sri Lanka thanks to an Alex Hales century. Against South Africa it was a close defeat. England lost by just three runs while trying to chase 197 for victory.
England were already out of the tournament by the time they faced the Netherlands in their last group game, but no one would have made the associates favourites. England were still the big boys in this contest. The Dutch didn’t see it that way.
They batted first and set 134 for England to win. Borren was not happy with this at the innings break. He felt that they had not pushed on in the death overs as they should have done. In hindsight he said they had an above par score. The pitch was tired, as was shown in the Sri Lanka v New Zealand match that immediately followed this match. In that match Sri Lanka set New Zealand 120 to win and bowled them out for 60. To see a full member side struggle as they had against the Sri Lankan bowlers must have pleased the Dutch, although it would be unlikely for any of them to ever admit it.
Looking back, he thought they would have to bowl well to win. Borren, ever the perfectionist, isn’t convinced that they did. They could have executed their plans even better. Watching from the outside, they seemed to get things spot on. They bowled England out for 88 with Mudassar Bukhari and Logan van Beek the stars as they picked up three wickets each. The point where there was no way back for England was the wicket of Ravi Bopara as he departed to leave his side 74/7 with only the bowlers left to come.
Van Beek was the bowler, Seelaar the catcher. For Seelaar the time that his side had playing county cricket helped playing England. These players weren’t unknown to them; the Dutch had played against England and done well against them before. There were no mysteries; they were not overawed or star-struck by the England players.
This was a clinical performance that saw them sweep aside a full member nation. England will no doubt have been disappointed with how they played, but the Netherlands were worthy winners. The most striking part of discussing this match with the players involved is that they seemed underwhelmed by this win. They won against England, but the real focus is the games that they should have won but didn’t. England was a consolation victory. This tells you a lot about the belief that Borren and his side have in themselves.
Dutch cricket has a long association with the English county game, not least from cricketers who have played for county sides. Fast bowler Andre van Troost was a Somerset stalwart throughout the 1990s. Roland Lefebvre also played for Somerset before moving to Glamorgan and playing a leading role in their victorious Sunday League campaign in 1993. In 1995, the Netherlands national team were playing in the one-day cricket knockout competition. They competed every year up until it went from straight knockout to a league format in 2006, although they were already knocked out of the 2003 event in 2002 qualifiers.
A Gentlemen of the Netherlands side toured England a few times at the turn of the 20th century, with an MCC side returning the favour in 1902. Despite that, cricket in the Netherlands remained very much a local sport. There were a few players who did make some waves in England, J.E. Rincker, Carst Posthuma and Henri van Booven among them, but it wasn’t until after the Second World War that cricket spread out from the elite that played the game in its beginnings.
After the war, an influx of immigrants from former British colonies saw people bring a love of the game with them and that opened things up to a wider range of people in the Dutch clubs. It seems that this was welcomed by most, even though it changed the make-up of the clubs. Having more cricketers was good for the game but those new cricketers didn’t venture overseas to play. It wasn’t until Paul-Jan Bakker got a deal with Hampshire that a Dutchman played county cricket as a professional. He was joined by Roland Lefebvre and Andre van Troost when they started playing for Somerset in the 1990s, but these Netherlands players in county cricket are few and far between.
Bakker had a successful career with Hampshire as a bowler, playing for the county for six seasons. Lefebvre made his first-class bow for Somerset against Oxford University in 1990. Van Troost joined him at the West Country side a year later, making his first appearance against a Surrey team that featured a young Waqar Younis and an even younger Graham Thorpe.
Van Troost turned out for Somerset for seven seasons, mostly in first-class cricket. By the mid-1990s Lefebvre had been forced to retire from county cricket due to injury, but alongside Bakker he was a member of the first side from the Netherlands to compete at a Cricket World Cup.
Even now, Lefebvre talks in excited terms about getting to play cricket for a living. It was his dream. As a youngster he used to drive into Rotterdam with packed lunches and deckchairs to watch Test cricket on a big screen outside a news agency. It was his passion, it was his hobby and it became his job. ‘I had posters of Viv Richards, Graham Gooch and David Gower on my bedroom wall,’ he recalled.
The chance to join Somerset first came about thanks to an appearance against England A, where his Dutch team beat a strong England side that included Nasser Hussain, Alec Stewart and fatefully, Peter Roebuck. It was Roebuck who first discussed the possibility of Lefebvre getting a gig at Somerset and that set the wheels in motion. He was a mainstay of the Somerset team the next season.
The highlight for Lefebvre came in 1993 with Glamorgan. ‘I was probably the missing link in that Glamorgan side. At the same time I was playing with Viv Richards in his last year in professional cricket. He is just the most amazing person I have played with. The inspiration, the aura, the energy he exudes was just amazing. It is something that I will never forget in my lifetime.’
Lefebvre is now involved in Dutch player development and van Troost was briefly the CEO of the KNCB until he decided cricket administration was not for him. Bakker was the coach of the Dutch team, albeit briefly, in 2007. These men were the trailblazers who helped turn Netherlands cricket into a force on the international stage. All of them played a part in getting them to the World Cup in 1996.
Since then some Dutch players have turned out in county cricket, but not as many as those from Ireland and Scotland. Ryan ten Doeschate was playing county cricket before he played for the Netherlands, having been an Essex regular for over a decade. Bas Zuiderent was at Sussex from 1999 to 2003. Dirk Nannes has had various county stints, though not all would consider him Dutch. In recent times it is only Alexei Kervezee, who plays for Worcestershire, but no current members of the Dutch national squad have a county contract.
This is something that Borren would like to see change. ‘[Playing county cricket] has never been anything for me, but for some Dutch players it should be something they do in the future. It is a healthy thing for Dutch cricket. There is a young guy called Viv Kingma who could be a sensational bowler who swings the new ball at 140kph. He is an incredible talent, not just by Dutch standards but by any standards. It is a good pathway, and playing in England can help us develop our players.’
As is often the case with county cricket, there was a decision to revamp the one-day competition for the 2010 season. The 18 first-class counties were to take part along with a Minor Counties composite team called the Unicorns. Scotland and Ireland were also invited to participate. Ireland declined, deciding that they were better served by trying to play more international games than being ‘the 19th county’. The Netherlands were asked if they would take Ireland’s place and they readily agreed. The competition lasted for four seasons before the inevitable reshuffling of the county fixture list saw the involvement of these additional teams brought to an end.
The first season was a tough one for the Dutch; they won just the one match, against Derbyshire. The next two seasons were more positive. In 2012 the Dutch were in contention for a semi-final spot for most of the competition. They won five of their first seven games and spent much of the group stage at the top of the table. They weren’t there to make up the numbers.
Seelaar found taking part in the tournament a positive experience. ‘I thought it was a really good thing for us. It was a massive disappointment to be out of that tournament when the schedule was restructured. We were competing. Not to point the finger or to be unkind, but if you look at the results Scotland got they only won two or three games. Whereas we were contending for top spot in 2012.’
The exposure to county cricket helped when it came to playing England in the World Twenty20. So much of elite sport is about belief. If you can clear your mind of the fear of failure and have faith that you deserve to be playing at that level you have gone a long way to winning. After that it is just a case of doing what you have done thousands upon thousands of times in practice. When the Netherlands walked out to bat against England in Bangladesh at an ICC world event, none of the players on the opposition overawed them. They had played them, and beaten them, before.
‘By the third year we were thinking to ourselves, “These are just average county players”,’ Seelaar said. ‘Every time we played them it was their overseas star that was getting the runs. We didn’t feel like we were worse than them.’
For Borren, playing regular cricket was the part that he liked most. ‘As a Dutch team we are pretty used to going on tour, and we are pretty used to playing tournaments, but to have regular games throughout the summer at Test grounds and on good surfaces, week in week out was really good for our development as a side.’
As with all things where a full member and an associate are involved, the arrangement only lasted as long as it suited the English cricketing authorities. Once it was decided to move to a 50-over competition that was split into two groups, the Dutch were dropped like a holiday romance. It could be that we see the Netherlands playing in county cricket again, but we may have to wait a while.
To become a cricketer in Europe having not come from a family with links to the sport is a matter of happenstance and commitment. It is something that you have to make a real commitment to from an early age. Playing cricket in a country where it is on TV, where you play it at school, where it is an established and mainstream sport. Those things are easy. Deciding that cricket is to be your game when most of your school friends will not have a clue about it, is a brave decision. Not one for the faint-hearted, we will never know how many promising cricketers have turned their backs on the game because it meant spending less time with their friends for something few understand.
One of the first to make an impact in domestic cricket having learnt the game in mainland Europe was Ole ‘Stan’ Mortensen. A Danish tax inspector in training when he was first spotted by an English county, he discovered cricket by accident. The teenage Mortensen was walking past a field one day when he saw a sport he had never come across before. There were men wearing white clothes chasing a red ball around. He sat on a bench and watched for a while, trying to work out what was going on. Eventually one of the players asked him if he was interested in playing.
A talented natural sportsman who wanted to be active all the time, Mortensen agreed readily to coming back at the weekend to learn more about this weird game. He came to the ground fresh from playing in a football match and keen to find out more. No sooner had he arrived than he was being asked to play. He had never held a cricket bat, cricket ball or even fully understood the rules. He batted at 11 and top-scored. He was hooked. His immediate success gave him ‘real motivation to learn – it kick-started my career’.
For Seelaar, his introduction to the game was similar but less down to happenstance. Many football clubs in the Netherlands also play cricket. While the cricket section is smaller, many clubs run cricket sessions for the youngsters playing football to introduce them to the game. With cricket not being part of the school curriculum, this is often the first introduction to the game that a Dutch youngster has. Seelaar said for the most part, people in the Netherlands don’t know it is a sport or that it is played by the Dutch. You need to be led to it; it won’t find you.
‘Once you are in love with cricket,’ Seelaar reflected, ‘there is no way back. It has got you.’ But without the sport being widely played in schools the chances of that happening to a young person in the Netherlands are remote. It was clear to the coaches that Seelaar had a natural ability for cricket and they were quick to take him to one side and ask him to play the game more often. That push towards the game was all that was needed to get him more involved and he had the bug.
That is not to say that being a cricket-playing youngster was easy. Seelaar admits that by the time he was a teenager he nearly walked away from the game. His friends would refer to cricket as a ‘geek sport’, and as the teenage instincts to fit in and impress became all the more important to him he seriously considered packing it in.
This is a problem not just in associate countries, but elsewhere. Cricket isn’t a sport that is all over by 12noon on a weekend, leaving you free to meet friends, male or female. Cricket requires sacrifice in terms of time. The chances are you will be gone for the whole day and that means seeing less of your friends than you would like. The old stagers of your cricket club who smell of sweat and Deep Heat are not as appealing as a pretty young thing who wants to go to the cinema with you.
One of the aspects of associate cricket that is most obvious when you speak to the players is the sacrifices that they needed to make to play the game. It isn’t an easy choice to play cricket. Whereas in full member countries there is a career path that is well-trodden and clearly marked, in associate nations cricket is not a career choice. It is only in the last few years that the KNCB has been able to offer professional contracts to players, but even then only five players made the cut. When you think that the UK has around 400 county players and many more people who are paid to turn out for club sides, it shows you the divide that exists.
If you decide that you are going to make international cricket your hobby, you will need an understanding family, partner and employer. There will be late-night training sessions after a full day’s work. There will be times when you are paying out of your own pocket for equipment, travel and accommodation. There will be annual leave that is used for travelling to play cricket and family celebrations missed to represent your country.
Any sportsman who makes it to international level will have made countless sacrifices; those in associate cricket nations like the Netherlands have done so with virtually no chance of financial reward and worldwide fame.
The challenge for the KNCB is to grow its player base. All those involved are aware of this and know the obstacles that it faces for this to happen. There is no cricket in schools apart from the odd ‘taster’ session and club cricket is losing playing time to football and hockey. Young cricketers are being tempted away by other sports that take less time to play and cost less money for their parents.
Roland Lefebvre said that in his role as high performance manager at the KNCB he hasn’t seen ‘athletes’ coming through the age-group programmes. Those boys and girls are taking part in other sports. The question for the KNCB is how it makes cricket an attractive option as a young person’s summer sport. By 2018 it wants 80 per cent of the team to be players who learnt the game in the Netherlands. That is a target it will have to move mountains to achieve.
On-field success is one of the ways that you draw people into the sport and by getting in ‘hired guns’, as Peter Borren has described them, is one way that you can do that. However, that is a short-term solution that doesn’t address the real issue – playing numbers. With so few people taking part in the game, the other associates that are coming up on the inside of the Dutch will fly ahead and disappear out of sight.
Dutch cricket is run by good people but if they want to stay as one of the big boys outside of the mainstream, or even still challenge to get inside the club, they need to make the game a mainstream choice for Dutch kids. For Borren, Test status has no interest for him. They don’t play four-day cricket in the Netherlands and the chances are they never will. He wants his side to get permanent ODI status and regular high-class opponents to play against.
There is no reason why cricket cannot do this. There is constant harping about ‘preserving records’ as if that is what the sport is for. As if cricket is about filling up dusty yellow books with numbers so that they can be brought down once in a while and looked at. In other sports there are no such fears. Football is no worse off with the leading international goalscorer being Ali Daei of Iran. Rugby still has context with Daisuke Ohata of Japan as its leading international try-scorer.
Cricket is so much more than that. It is a sport that you can truly fall in love with, and with every passing year, you learn more about it and yourself. We should want to spread that joy, not tell ourselves that other countries are not worthy of it. Don Bradman played against weak sides, so did Garry Sobers, Brian Lara, Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar. To suggest that by keeping the footprint of cricket as small as possible helps the sport is blinkered and illogical. Look at what the Dutch have done with virtually no money and some 5,000 players. Think what they could do with some extra cash and 10,000 players, or 20,000. Open the door, let them in, fund them, and watch the sport we love grow.