| Dutch fast bowler Paul van Meekeren is not getting too excited by seeing the sights of the United States – he wants to find the best hiding spots.The USA is co-hosting an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup for the first time, but old habits die hard for the 31-year-old.Since making his debut in 2013, the right-arm seamer has developed a preference for watching as little of his side’s batting innings as possible.“I tend to hide in the changing room,” Van Meekeren admitted. “I do watch it a little bit on the screen but in general you can hear by the sound of the crowd whether it is a wicket or a boundary.I enjoy it that way a bit more, if I don’t look at the game then I can just imagine we are just going at 10 an over from the start instead of going at 5 or 6 an over and then I get stressed.“I’ve always felt like I was really nervous sitting on the sides, so I didn’t want to give that nervous feeling to the batters who are batting next or to the rest of the team.”The approach stems from the paceman’s early days in the Netherlands set-up, when the squad were in Namibia for a Cricket World Cup League Qualifier.“It was really hot and the coaches said to Vivian Kingma and myself ‘you guys are young, go and sit inside where it is cool’,” he said.“That was the first time the coaches said that you don’t have to watch cricket because usually they are saying ‘support your teammates’. I realised I was enjoying it and I felt a lot better for it.“Throughout the years you get a little bit more freedom with the more games you’ve played, I started hiding in the changing rooms more and I am probably one of the guys who gets away with it.”The UK-based cricketer says he uses the crowd’s reaction to gauge the state of the match and waits for his teammates to calm down from their ‘tantrums’ after getting out before asking what conditions are like.He added: “When I get a bit nervous, I start walking around but in 50-over games, I will try to have a nap early on because I know I won’t be needed with the bat.“It differs per game and per ground, some grounds have better hiding spots than other grounds.I will see when I get to the ground where my hiding spot will be but generally it is out of sight of the camera.“The Indian changing rooms are the best by a mile, they’ve got big comfy fold-out chairs, last year at the World Cup was probably one of the better places to hide.”Van Meekeren is relishing getting back on the biggest stage and a date awaits with South Africa, a side the Netherlands have beaten in their last two encounters at World Cups.Also in their group are Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, against whom the Dutch begin their tournament on 4 June.“I don’t know what it is about South Africa,” Van Meekeren said. “We’ve had success in World Cups the last two times we’ve played each other,but then we had two ODIs about a year and a half ago and we lost both. Maybe it is the format of more of a knockout feel than a bilateral series that gets the best out of us.“I don’t want to talk too much about South Africa because I don’t want to give them any ammo, but I’d love to make it three out of three against them.”Despite having already been on the international scene for 10 years, Amsterdam-born Van Meekeren shot to fame last year as he took four wickets against Bangladesh in the 2023 Cricket World Cup.It soon emerged that during the pandemic he had spent his time delivering takeaways around Bristol, in the southwest of England, to help tide him over before sport returned.And while his performances in an orange shirt have moved the narrative past those days, Van Meekeren is happy to talk about it for the good of his nation.He said: “They can use any story they want, I played a World Cup before I became famous for making delivers.“It was a good story, I got a bit of attention out of it. If we can talk about Dutch cricket, how cricketers get around here in Holland and the sacrifices they have to make and how we keep growing the game, that is the most important thing for me.“And if that delivery story is the way into how we talk about Dutch cricket and maybe create a few new fans for the men and women in orange, that would be a great way.” |
