“There was a lot of total cricket. It wasn’t just the batters or just the bowlers who stood up. That embodies total cricket.” – Paul van Meekeren on the Dutch’s Johan Cruyff approach.
Telford Vice / Mumbai
IT was an offer Paul van Meekeren could, and did, refuse. “Two brothers ordered from the same fish-and-chip shop,” van Meekeren said in Dharamsala on Tuesday after he had been part of the Netherlands’ stunning World Cup win over South Africa. “The one I went to second offered me 10 pounds if I would go to his place first instead of to his brother’s. I threatened the first brother — if he didn’t give me 10 pounds I would stamp on his food.”
All of which was said in jest: no serious bribe attempt was made and no money changed hands except at the advertised price for fish-and-chips. Even so, the story is true and its circumstances illuminating.
van Meekeren was released by Somerset after the 2019 season, partly as he wasn’t able to play a single match for the first XI because of a misdiagnosed injury. His back-up plan to earn money playing club and county second XI cricket in England fell through, and then the 2020 T20 World Cup was postponed because of the pandemic.
What to do to make money through the winter in the UK? van Meekeren resorted to something that didn’t require the seam bowling skills he had spent years acquiring and honing in the Netherlands and England: he took up a job driving and delivering for Uber Eats, even acquiring the Santa Claus outfit delivery drivers are expected to wear in December, regardless of how silly it makes them look.
But Christmas, in a cricket sense, did come again for van Meekeren. He has since played for Durham and Gloucestershire as well as in the LPL and CPL, and has become a central figure in a Dutch team who find ways to win even when the rankings and conventional wisdom says they shouldn’t.
Tuesday was one of those times. Reduced to 140/7, the Netherlands refused to capitulate and totalled a defendable 245/8. Then they had South Africa on the ropes at 44/4 on their way to dismissing them for 207. van Meekeren did his bit by cleanbowling Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen.
“We adapted better than South Africa did. We felt the pitch was two-paced and up and down, so we thought cross-seam would be most beneficial. Dirk Nannes also came to us to tell us that, for most of our innings, we only scored 7% of our runs by playing straight. It was an indication that they bowled too short. So we concentrated on hitting the top of off to get them to play forward.
“The wickets were spread among the bowlers. It wasn’t a one-man show. The captain [Scott Edwards, who scored 78 not out] gave us an opportunity to defend the total with a couple of cameos from [Aryan] Dutt and [Roelof] van der Merwe [who made 29 and 23 not out]. There was a lot of total cricket. It wasn’t just the batters or just the bowlers who stood up. That embodies total cricket.”
Total cricket? As in total football, the tactical system the Dutch devised in which any player — the goalkeeper excepted — is able to attack, defend and patrol the midfield as well as any other player, regardless of what position they have been assigned? Were the Netherlands trying to play cricket like Johan Cruyff, total football’s exemplar supreme, might have?
“I think he would have been proud,” van Meekeren said. And he might even have had a go — Cruyff preferred playing baseball, cricket’s close cousin, to anything else until his football coaches talked him out of messing about with irrelevant bat-and-ball games when he was 15. Who’s to say a young Cruyff coming up today and seeing the innovative confidence the rising Dutch show on the cricket field wouldn’t kick football into touch?
“We believe that if we do the right things that you have to do at this level for the right period of time, we can beat any team,” van Meekeren said. “That’s what we showed today. We didn’t panic when we lost wickets. We took it as deep as we could and gave Scott and the guys the opportunity to accelerate and put a good total on the board.”
The Netherlands’ win followed losses to Pakistan and New Zealand, but their next game is against Sri Lanka in Lucknow on Saturday. The Lankans have lost to South Africa, Pakistan and Australia, and could be ripe for the picking by ambitious opponents like the Dutch — who are not alone.
“We saw Afghanistan beat England [in Delhi on Sunday],” David Miller said. “Whatever sport it is, there are upsets at World Cups. [The Dutch win] was good for the tournament, although not for us.”
It’s an offer of an entertaining match and an unusual result that teams who fall victim to sides they think they should beat wish they could refuse.
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