ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 27, 2022

Paul van Meekeren

Sydney Cricket Ground

Netherlands

Post Match Media Conference

India 179/2, Netherlands 123/9.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks everyone for joining us for this post match press conference. We're joined by Paul van Meekeren of the Netherlands following Netherlands versus India at Sydney Cricket Ground.

Q. (Off microphone).

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: Look, It's fun. You don't get these opportunities very often. I think our approach was at the end of the day it's someone holding a bat. Bit of roots.

Trying to keep it as simple as possible. Stick to your own strengths and stay one ball at a time. Tonight was not our night, but I think the guys thoroughly enjoyed it.

Q. Without sort of going too much on to the experience. What was it like out there when the sea of blue in the crowd, you in the field and that's going? What is that like as an experience out there in the middle?

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: Yeah, very new. To be honest, I think you're in your own little bubble. You try to block the noise out. You watch it on TV about 100 times, and just to be there is very special. I think in the moment I probably didn't realize it as much, and it will probably sink in in the next 24 hours.

Q. I think overall you must have been pretty happy with that bowling experience. Obviously a couple of sixes off that last over. Considering the pitch, considering South Africa early in the day, were you happy to keep them to the 180 total?

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: Honestly, probably a little bit less. I think looking at myself, I gave quite easy boundaries. If we're being honest to ourselves, probably a little bit less, especially after the first 10 overs. Obviously, we didn't take the wickets that we wanted to, which gives them the freedom to play as they did at the back.

Yeah, we're being hard on ourselves. I guess you miss by a centimeter, and you're travel. Bowling against the best players in the world, and even if you miss a little bit, you just go.

I personally did it three times, and I'm sure some of the other bowlers might feel the same about their own bowling.

But I think, first, I'm very proud about how we went about it. Them being one down. It could have been a lot more. We could have panicked and lose our heads, but I think all the bowlers stayed very clear on what they wanted to do. They came with good plan, stick to it, and then just try and execute.

Sometimes you get it wrong, and you travel, and sometimes you execute, and it's only a dot ball no matter how good they are.

Q. How important is a match like this for cricket in the Netherlands? These are the matches as a player you would want to play in, but knowing that millions of people around the world, because it's against India, are watching the Netherlands play?

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: (Laughing) again, it's massive. The amount of media we got back home because we're playing India was immense.

Getting photos and messages from people in Holland from family about just the articles and I said about something this is a day I'll tell to my grandkids hopefully. That's what it is, Playing against India.

At the end of the day, you're playing against 11 other men. They're not Gods or anything, so you just compete man-to-man. That's what we tried to do today, and it didn't plan out probably the way we hoped to.

Q. Putting your Players Union cap on for a moment, I know you are quite big on that. Looking to the younger group, the likes of the Pringle, Vikram Singh, and others. Looking now playing against India to pick up off the last question, how important is it for those guys to be brought into the system early, and what do you think the lessons are for Dutch cricket and the next generation for them to bloom and realize their full potential?

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: I think I'm not going too much on that. I have set up the Dutch Players Association. What we discuss and how I see, I like to keep to myself and not share with the media.

Q. Just quickly on you personally, I know that in patches even though you've been playing a lot of domestic cricket around the world, in the U.K. as well, there's been a lot of shuffling in and out of the team in general. So coming back and having the experience of previous tournaments, how important has that been for you to hit the ground running and perform well, especially with the ball?

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: Big. Obviously, having the county guys available for a tournament like this makes us a stronger team, but I think that we didn't have the county guys available during the summer playing against Pakistan, West Indies, and England actually took a lot of guys to the next level.

I think Bas de Leede had a break-through year and has been rewarded in the international league. Vikram, similar against West Indies, I think, if I'm not correct. Scored three 40s and maybe 50 in there.

The same with Shariz. He is bowling fantastically well. He only got 1 over today, and he did what was asked from him, and he didn't get a second over. That's not his fault. He did a great job. He will be one of those guys who will be around for a long time, I hope.

Q. Yesterday I did an interview with your captain, and I asked him which Indian batsman is going to be a threat? In general he spoke about Suryakumar Yadav. The kind of innings he played today, Your thoughts on that?

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: I think we know how good Sky is. Over the last 12 months, if not longer, I've personally felt he was the biggest threat to bowl to. Just with his open stance, I just felt that the margin of error was a lot smaller compared to Kohli and maybe a bit more traditional.

They're very good players in their right, and Rohit played some unbelievable shots. When I was bowling, I felt the biggest pressure came when I was bowling to Sky. Obviously, if you miss a little bit, he punishes you. Same with other guys, but he did just a little bit more today.

Q. What was the conversation like? You had them down to 32 for 1 at the power play actually. And the second question is, 36,000-plus crowd. It's something really the Holland team probably isn't used to. Any talks about that?

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: We knew it was going to be big crowds. I think maybe playing England this year when we had a big crowd against England in Holland maybe gave a few guys that experience of the night. I can't really remember your first question, but --

Q. (Off microphone).

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: Yeah. We did really good in the power play. I think the wicket was a little bit too paced maybe, but you still need to execute. And I think we executed brilliantly in the power play, but we just didn't get the wickets that we wanted to.

Against a team like India with so much power in their batting order, if you don't take wickets, you can't put them on the pressure of what you really want to do as a bowling unit.

That's what happens when you play against guys who play cricket professionally 24/7. We've got guys in the changing room who pay to go to their own trainings and only get paid when we go on tour and play games in Holland.

You know, if we could get paid, it might not be a different game, but that's the level of difference against guys that can hit 1,000 balls every week, and guys who study, work, all those kind of things.

Q. (Off microphone).

PAUL VAN MEEKEREN: Yeah. I think this year hopefully we showed how good the wickets are in Holland. I think the practice wickets were outstanding back home, and we played some competitive games.

So there's no reason why testings can't come to Holland instead of playing the counties. And hopefully as a non-cricketed nation, these big players can walk the streets without being recognized so they have more freedom playing in Holland. We've got the facilities.

We can be as competitive as playing the warm-up game against other countries. Why not come to Holland for ten days before they travel to England?

THE MODERATOR: I think that concludes today's press conference. Thanks, very much, everyone in the room.