Cricket and the world
As the second most-watched sport after football. Cricket is enjoyed all over the world. The old British sport that spread its wings all over the commonwealth, introducing cricket throughout the world. It grew to be a popular sport in South Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe.
Cricket has expanded over the last hundred years all over the planet. But the funny thing is only 12 teams play..2 teams from Europe 5 teams in South Asia, 2 from Africa, 1 in west indies
representing 15 Caribbean countries and 2 from the very bottom of the earth in Australiasia
These countries are full members whilst 93 countries remain as associate countries.It wasn’t too long that Ireland and Afghanistan joined as members in 2018 and ten years before that Bangladesh joined also. It is promising to see new countries join- but at such a slow rate?
The Netherlands and Cricket?
The Netherlands and Dutch cricket is not the first thing you think of when visualising cricket-Even though the name Cricket” comes from the Dutch word “Kricke” and the “Krickstoel” resembled the stumps we see today behind the batsmen. The dutch cricket board was established in 1883. It is one of the oldest national governing bodies in the sport- it is even older than some of the full members
of the ICC.
Dutch cricket has been enjoyed for many years since an English traveler played on dutch soil in 1780. It didn’t stop their many foreigners played cricket in the Netherlands.
In 1969 The England team stopped by before an ashes match and embarrassingly lost against the home team. Cricket was the most popular sport in the Netherlands in the 19th century until football came. This didn’t get in the way of Dutch cricket. The team plodded along and made a few more upsets. In 2003 the Netherlands made an impressive 320 runs in the Icc world cup and beat Namibia by 64
runs. Jacob Jan Esmeijer was one of the Netherlands ‘ best-left arm spinners. He would not let anyone go for more than 5 runs an over.
Jan was one of the names in the hall of fame of Dutch cricket. Anton Bakker played in the 1969 match against England and was considered the best captain in Dutch cricket. Steven lubbers also is a
great. Even though he didn’t do much in the first few competitions, he found his confidence and got 12 wickets in 1986 and made 3 half centuries. He stayed put and guided his country through matches and tournaments. He retired on a high note, in 1996 and now sadly a gymnastic teacher.
A talent wasted, 6000 cricketers in the Netherlands are yearning to bring it back. There needs to be a push for this sport in this country. Captain Paul Borren retired at 34 leading the orange team for nine years. He contributed over 1000 runs with the bat and 46 wickets. Paul led the team to another historic victory, against England in 2009, winning by 4 wickets. The left-arm spinner Peter
Seelar succeeds him. He is determined to push the team to new boundaries but understands he has big boots to fill.
The future could possibly be…Orange?
Things have progressed…In 2017 the Netherlands has regained ODI status after 4 years, which is a huge achievement. Ryan Campbell is the coach of the Orange team and he is confident that his team will continue to make more upsets and surprises. But they need to “Up their game” for the big teams. Last year in Dubai and Abu Dhabi the Netherlands won eight of nine games to qualify and beat
Papua New Guinea, in the final, to win the ICC T20 World cup qualifier trophy.
This sport survived the first world war as the dutch continued to tour England. Cricket has a new formidable force. It is the Royal dutch lions, they are fighting for what they once had. “Kricke”
Ryan Campbell the coach said that Netherlands will not accept that they are just known as the “13th” member in the ICC but a team that never forgets and never gives up.
