Paul van Meekeren: 'Our seam attack is so talented, I'll need to work my bum off to get a slot to play'
Netherlands' front-line fast bowler on his CPL stint, working odd jobs between tournaments, and coming into his second World Cup a different bowler
The CPL deal was sorted before I hit my form in the Royal London Cup. I had a message from Evan Speechley, who is the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Netherlands physio. He reached out to me because Malo [Malolan Rangarajan, RCB's head of scouting and Patriots' assistant coach] was scouting. Malo asked me if I was available, and Dwayne Bravo also said, "I want you to join the team because I need an opening bowler." Apparently I'd made an impression during the Global T20 Canada for him to ask me, which I wasn't aware of at all! Hopefully, I can come back and defend the title with St Kitts.
I think I took a lot of confidence away from it, that I can compete and belong at that level, and really contribute and play those tournaments. Some of the tactics and fields that were being set were interesting and something that I definitely want to experiment with in the warm-up games before the T20 World Cup.
"I ended up doing food delivery because you can just open the app and start working. I didn't want to be stuck working in a restaurant where, if I got a phone call saying 'Come and train with us tomorrow', I can't tell them 'I have a job'"
I think Russell is a special case (laughs). I got him out in the first game against Jamaica and then I bowled an over to him and I went for 24-25 in another. I guess it was one-all. But Russell and probably [Kieron] Pollard, when they're on - which nine out of ten times they are - there are no words that I can find to describe the amount of pressure that you are under. If you miss by an inch, you go for six. They hit the ball so clean and so far.
I think he's just one of those captains that believes in his players. From day one he says, "We're going to win this tournament and you're here for a reason, because I believe in you and the coaching staff believe in you. We've got players that match up against certain opposition and that's how the team was built as well." I feel the guys he believed in had something that the other team would struggle against, and he probably made all those match-ups in his head.
Definitely. You've got people coming from different places in the world, which is different to your life. That's one of the beauties about cricket - it's so diverse in where it's being played around the world. I think it makes you a better person and you learn about other people's lives and their ways of living, which I really, really enjoy. You will never stop learning and never stop being a better version of yourself. Hopefully, in the next few years I get the opportunity to travel a bit more and keep developing as a person and a player.
Actually, it's not a nickname used in the Dutch team here. I think it happened at Somerset, where we have a very loyal fan base. There was a group of three, four members at Somerset who were die-hard fans, coming for the first team, second team games, and they came up with "the Smiler". In one of the first meetings with St Kitts I said, "I'm called the Smiler and if you're ever down, you can come and see me and hopefully I bring a smile to your face."
I was looking for something to pay my bills at the end of the day. Unfortunately, I don't live in Holland, so I can't get a KNCB [Dutch cricket board] contract - you have to live there to get one. I lost my county contract, so I didn't have any finance coming in out of cricket. So I wanted to look for opportunities. If clubs and counties are allowed to get players from outside to train indoors, I wanted to be available. So I ended up doing Uber and Deliveroo, because you can just open the app, press start and start working. I didn't want to be stuck working in a restaurant or in a bar where, if you get a phone call saying, "Come and train with us tomorrow," I can't tell them, 'I have a job.'
Should've been playing cricket today now I'm delivering Uber eats to get through the winter months!! Funny how things change hahaha keep smiling people https://t.co/kwVEIo6We9
— Paul van Meekeren (@paulvanmeekeren) November 15, 2020
I think people have said it: We've got one of the best seam attacks, if not the best, we've ever had, which is very exciting to be part of. It doesn't matter how many games I've played for the Dutch team or the experience I've got. Guys in our seam attack are very, very good, talented bowlers and there's no way I'm sitting here thinking, come the 18th of October I'm going to play a World Cup game. I'll need to work my bum off to get a slot to play. So that's very exciting, obviously, and in the batting, in the middle order we have Tendo [Ryan ten Doeschate], [Colin] Ackermann, who is a well-established player, which is great.
" I'm a glass-half-full kind of a guy: take it on the chin and just enjoy being with your team-mates. Make sure you hit the ground running and blow teams away, come October 18th"
I think that whole tournament was unbelievable at that time. There was a game against Bangladesh where I dropped a catch and bowled really well. It haunts me a little bit, because I believe we should've won that game, but that was a great experience overall. And then there was a bit of weather around and we didn't play against Oman.
I think this is going to be a different tournament. In 2019 in the UAE, we had the pressure of qualifying as one of the favourites coming into the tournament. Then we came across the UAE side and if we had lost that game, it would have been a knockout between us and Scotland. That was a game we didn't want to play. Luckily we blew away UAE and qualified, so we could relax. That tournament had a different vibe and pressure on us than here at the World Cup.
Definitely, but I'm not going to tell you which one because maybe some of the opposition might read it or see it (laughs). I'd like to think in five years [since the 2016 World Cup] as a bowler you develop just like how batters develop, coming to the tournament with new shots. There are some new balls and new ways of thinking about bowling. I've played a bit of county cricket and some of the franchise tournaments, so taking that experience along with new options and slower balls... I'm probably a bit more confident with my yorkers now.
We are all confident that we can achieve something special here at this World Cup. We also don't want to get carried away by that excitement and make sure we just keep doing the little things well. When we train, we train high-quality and make sure we're not wasting the little bit of time we get at the ground. We've got very clear plans as a bowling group and I'm sure it's the same for batters, though I'm not involved in that (laughs). Whoever is going to bowl that first ball in orange, it's going to set the tone and the other bowlers will back him up, smashing it from the other end.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo