While watching a World Cup Qualifier game, my 9-year-old Cricket crazy nephew asked “ Who are these guys? Do Scotland and UAE also play cricket? It was not his fault that he couldn’t recognise guys like Peter Van der Merve or Rohan Mustafa or Shaiman Anwar. Life of a cricket fan revolves around top countries or maximum to 12 test nations, and this two-part series brings you some unknown heroes of Associate Cricket.
5Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands):
While he played his last one-day internationals almost 7 years back, Ryan ten Doeschate can be termed as one of the most excellent players to have emerged from associate countries. He averaged 67 in his 33 one-day internationals but stopped playing for the Dutch after 2011 World Cup. With Netherlands losing the ODI status after 2013 there was no inspiration for him to play until last December when the country got golden opportunity to win World Division league 2 and return to the major ODI nations.
Doeschate has a very impressive A-list and first-class record as well. He has scored 9,581 runs in first-class games at an average of 48.38 and 5,714 runs at a remarkable average of 46.45 in A-list games. His twin hundreds in 2011 world cup was an exhibition of his phenomenal talent. With the Netherlands ranked 13 and entering in One day league, it might inspire 37 years old to stay in International cricket for few more years.
