24 October - Delhi - Netherlands player Logan van Beek pre-match press conference
[Reporter:]
We have already seen upset by Netherlands beating South Africa. Can we see another upset beating Australia?
[Logan Van Beek:]
Why not? It's, you know, we've come here to reach the semi-finals. That's our goal. It's been pretty clear throughout the whole preparation phase. And the South African win just gave us that extra belief that you know the way they're playing at the moment on our day we can we can still beat a good team.
[Reporter:]
When we talk about Netherlands cricket, and we talk about a lot of amateurs playing the game but with the leagues going around and now that you have shown in two successive World Cups that you can take on the bigger teams, where do you see professionalism coming into Netherlands cricket right now? Do you see yourself as professional cricketers who can actually survive on cricket now?
[Logan Van Beek:]
It's the hot question at the moment, is how do we ride this momentum and actually put structures in place in the Netherlands so that this run that we're having can be sustainable and that we can look at the long term and not let this time just be a flash in the pan. So, there's the attention we're getting through our performances, through the style we're playing. Hopefully, there's more investment into the game from a local point of view, but also international sponsors want to get behind the Netherlands team. And that's all going to kind of have a flow on effect, come into more contracts, better facilities, more resources, more coaching. And I look at how New Zealand were 20 years ago. I was only about 10 years old in New Zealand. But I remember that period, professional cricket actually started 2000. And see where New Zealand are right now, and the way they play and the way they go about it. You know, we've got in the Netherlands just as many players, and I can't see why in the next 5 to 10 years we can start being more consistent on the world stage.
T20 leagues? So, the nature of world cricket at the moment, and I think this is going to happen for most teams, for example, I've played GT 20 this year. I played at Worcester played the qualifiers and I also play in Wellington. So even on a kind of smaller scale I've played in four different leagues and just that experience from all those different leagues playing with different players and learning off them and then bringing it back to the Netherlands side only strengthens the team. So, I hope that there's a number of players from this tournament that they'll be able to play three or four leagues a year. They have a Dutch contract. And that's probably where we're heading.
[Reporter:]
You've been part of the Dutch sides for a few years now so what is it different about this particular side that you have this belief? I don't even know whether you consider your win against South Africa as an upset within your camp but what is it like what is why does it feel different even the way you won games in the qualifiers to get here.
[Logan Van Beek:]
I think it's the consistency of preparation So no matter who we're going up against, we consistently prepare exactly the same every time, whether it be Australia, whether it be Oman, that we go through the same process in terms of preparation. We don't leave out anything in terms of how hard we train or the analyst work that we do or the preparation we do in our recovery, everything. It's all consistent. That stems from Ryan Cook, the way he goes about it. He's very professional, very organized and also, he's got this positive belief. So the feeling of you feeling backed and I think the fact that he's so consistent in his preparation, his hard work that it's he's very believable and you want to follow him and so people coming into this culture quickly buy into how we how we go about it and it's yeah -new guys for example Sybrand Engelbrecht has come freshly into the environment and straight away has just kind of bought into the style of play and his performance the last few matches have shown that if you buy into it, you know, it's this kind of goes from there. And so, yeah.
[Reporter:]
Just on Scotty Edwards, I mean, is he already a little sick and tired about how everybody keeps bringing up his Australian connections, especially in the lead up to this game?
[Logan Van Beek:]
Yeah, no, Scotty's excited for this game. He's obviously probably grown up wanting to play for Australia. He still can play for Australia. What I've seen from Scott over the last few years, especially when he took over the captaincy and the way he plays, I firmly believe he would be a valuable asset to any Big Bash side going this summer. Victorian side, like he's probably not the traditional style Big Bash, like bash cricket, but he just, he gets you with like a million cuts or sweeps, I should say but he finds a way to get the job done and when you bat with him, he lifts your game as well. But no, he's, I can just tell the last few days, He's got that extra little motivation. And it's like me when I play New Zealand or Western. It's the same kind of feeling of, I just want to get one up over these guys.
[Reporter:]
And kind of picking up on that, Logan, Netherlands haven't played Australia in any format, I don't think, since the 2007 World Cup. I'm not sure if that's the same for other teams you've played in this tournament, but does that add something extra too?
[Logan Van Beek:]
Yeah, it's a great question. So, the warm-up game the other day was the first time that I'd played against Australia, first time a lot of the guys have played against Australia and for me growing up in New Zealand and being so close to Australia like I've looked up to the Australian photo right in my face right now at the back here just looking at me and a lot of those guys I grew up watching and I admired a lot of the way that Australians go about their cricket.
In the same pool as Australia so I think that's been and gone. We're very much in the now and what's going to happen in the future. Fingers crossed the way we're playing, we're showing that we deserve to be having more series at home in the Netherlands and teams are wanting to come over to the Netherlands to play as well, so hopefully Australia will be one of those teams that you know on the way to England they can play a series against the Netherlands before they play England and something along those lines will be pretty cool in the future.
[Reporter:]
You just mentioned that the Dutch team wants to make it through the semis. Somehow, if you are not able to make it to the semis, what would you consider a satisfactory campaign and how do you feel, how do you hope it can change Netherlands cricket?
[Logan Van Beek:]
Satisfactory campaign, yeah that's the thing, it's going to be one or two ways, we’re going to make the semis or we're not going to make the semis. I think satisfactory would be the fact that we have stayed consistent. So far, four games we've done that. Stayed consistent in our preparation. I'm just going to repeat it again. But if we can play to our standards every game, and regardless of the outcome, we can walk away and go, look, we did everything we possibly could do in that match to get the outcome we wanted. The beauty about how the pool was kind of playing out and people were losing here and everywhere is that it might not actually take four wins, it might take three wins in a net run rate or whatever the case may be. But no, that will be kind of for future to kind of dictate whether this is satisfactory or not. But for us internally, it's did we, can we look at ourselves in the mirror and say we did everything we possibly could do to give ourselves the best chance in this tournament.
[Reporter:]
[inaudible]
[Logan Van Beek:]
How do I hope that Netherlands? I think satisfactory is, yeah, it's kind of the wrong word like I don't that seems like it just like ho-hum kind of word I think an inspirational kind of tournament we want to we want to inspire that you know cricket is back home in Netherlands. I watched a Dutch sports show this morning and they were talking about cricket and laughing how it's pretty similar to a nine to five job, how long it takes, and they're making a few other jokes. And I hope that another of couple wins, they can almost stop joking about cricket in the Netherlands and they start talking seriously about how this is actually one of our best sports teams in the country. So that's - One to inspire the next generation but also to change the narrative within Netherlands around we're actually one of the better Netherlands sporting outfits.
[Reporter:]
Where do you think there has been a delay in Netherlands entry to Test cricket, considering that they’ve played in the 1996 World Cup and there were teams like Afghanistan and Ireland who were not there anywhere, they've got Test status, but Netherlands are still struggling to get Test status. Also, the fact that the proximity to England, where some of your players used to play county cricket, Luuk van Troost and so many others.
[Logan Van Beek:]
Yeah, I love Test cricket. Test cricket is something that I grew up watching. I still play four-day cricket in New Zealand and in county cricket. I firmly believe it's a great baseline to learn how to bat time, learn how to bowl long spells, but also learn how to play when you're tired. And for me the other day, in that Sri Lanka game, I betted for a couple hours, and then I had to go open the bowling. But I knew that I could do it because I had done it in four-day cricket. So that was the benefits of longer form cricket. I think in terms of for the Netherlands, I think chasing Test status could hamper getting more players involved in the Netherlands. I think the beauty is, for me personally - like if the Netherlands had Test status, then I wouldn't be able to go back and play in New Zealand or Colin Ackerman they can't go play County cricket or anything like that.
So I think the more we can I guess at this stage focus on the T20 and one day cricket and give guys opportunity to play in other leagues and around the world and give people in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh doesn't matter if they've got Dutch passports or if they want to play international cricket to come to the Netherlands do the qualifications like Teja Nidamanuru and Sybrand Engelbrecht have done and play international cricket, and so I think that's more positive in the short term for us? And then if we gain momentum and we've got a pool of players that can compete in Test match ricket in the future, then yeah, we'll definitely push for that.
[Reporter:]
My question for you is, once again, Scott has grown up in Australia, so he most probably got a chance to witness how Australians play their cricket, their cricketing culture from a very close distance and perhaps from an Australian perspective.
Has this knowledge of Scott helped you in any way while training? Has it added any surprise element or something especially in your training against Australia? Has his knowledge as a kid who grew up in Australia, has it helped you in training like his knowledge that he could gather?
[Logan Van Beek:]
Yeah, well I wasn't at training yesterday, so I'm not sure what he did yesterday and he wasn't at training yesterday as well it's obviously quite a short turnaround and we try and focus on the next game. Tonight's training though I was going to talk to him specifically around the batting and kind of what his tactics are against certain bowlers and I think, yeah, he's got to the stage now where he actually hasn't faced or played with a lot of the guys either. So, he's in a similar boat to us where he's watched them on TV a lot. He doesn't quite probably know them personally or, you know, he's only played maybe a little bit of grade cricket against Maxwell, I think.
So, he's probably in a similar boat to us around, yes, he's seen them on TV, and so again the beauty about Scott is that he treats each game exactly the same and he's such a low-key but he's such a humble, hard-working guy that you don't really know what's going to happen. It's hard to explain. Again, I think he leads the fact that it's just another game and that's the way he goes about it and that rubs on rubs off and a lot of us as well. We were going okay you know; this is just another game. Yes, it's the first time we're playing Australia and you know if we can manage to put on a great performance and create a memory for a lifetime then happy days but no, he's pretty cool calm and collective at the moment.