Netherlands know a thing or two about causing upsets in big tournaments. In the 2022 T20 World Cup, they beat South Africa and denied them a semi-final spot. In the feat 2023 ODI World Cup they beat Bangladesh, and ran Sri Lanka close. Their captain, Scott Edwards, who played a crucial role in those wins, is hopeful that his team will spring a few surprises in this T20 World Cup as well. This time, his main focus is on getting a "well-balanced" side to progress past the group stage.
Netherlands are coming into the T20 World Cup having caused a few upsets in the last two World Cups. How do you think your side has shaped up for the upcoming tournament?
We've got a strong squad and we are really well balanced. The guys are in some form in the domestic stuff, which is good. We've had a fair bit of experience in World Cups recently and we're hoping to take that form into the next World Cup.
I think there's a lot of strong Associate sides in this World Cup, so it'll be interesting to see how the results go, but we're confident in the style of cricket we play and we go into every game expecting to win. We want to play with a lot of energy. Our guys love running and diving around. The first goal is qualifying to the top eight, so our first focus is on those first four games.
What has your team been working on to get to that next level?
We've obviously shown that our best is well and truly good enough. It's just continuing to build on that consistency. That's how you make the semi-finals and beat these sides.
You have beaten South Africa in the last two World Cups and are grouped with them this time as well. You also toured South Africa to play warm-ups against their SA20 sides earlier this year. How much of a confidence boost is that this time around?
That was awesome. We got to give a few of the young guys an opportunity and play some good-quality cricket.
We always enjoy any opportunity to play in the World Cups against any side. We've obviously had some good success against South Africa in these World Cups and we're looking forward to playing all four sides [South Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka] in the first round. We've got four of those to beat - that's the goal for now.
This time you'll be without Colin Ackerman and Roelof van der Merwe, who are missing out due to county cricket commitments. How much has that hurt your team?
They're obviously two quality players, but I think the beautiful thing about Dutch cricket at the moment is, there is a lot of depth. We're just as confident in the guys that are coming in. I'm really looking forward to seeing what those guys bring.
Apart from missing players and picking players from a relatively smaller pool, what are the challenges of captaining an Associate team?
I think we've been pretty lucky because we've got nine fully contracted and a few extra semi-contracted players. The system is growing. Guys are training full-time. It's not like it used to be. We've had guys working two jobs and those sort of things, but pretty much the majority of our squad are now full-time cricketers, so we're confident that we're training as much and as hard as any team in the world. We pride ourselves on that.
What is your style of captaincy?
The main role is obviously getting the most out of your players. I give the guys the confidence or the freedom to let them do whatever works for them. I try and double down on that. We're quite a positive group. Our head coach, Ryan Cook, is extremely positive. So we built everything around that - like celebrating each other's success and those sorts of things. Yeah, it's an amazing group to be a part of and I'm very fortunate to be leading it.
Paul van Meekeren once said that you changed the way Netherlands trained.
That's more to do with the coaches than with me, really. We've got the Super League and these World Cups and on the back of that sort of cricket, I think you obviously have to up your game and your training to compete against these top sides. We do have a fantastic group and the way we train is as good as anyone.
Are you big on data and analysis?
Definitely, yes. It's been one thing that's controllable. You know, you can do more analysis work than other sides and get a leg up, in that sense. That's one thing we definitely pride ourselves on. Especially this first round, we've played all those sides one or two or three times in the last couple of years. That definitely helps with the analysis. And we've got some background staff who help us with plans.
I definitely love the data and watching videos of opposition. You can get a step ahead sometimes. Once you've got that knowledge, your instincts get better as well.
You were using planning notes for batters during the ODI World Cup match against South Africa in 2023. Was that specifically for the bigger teams?
In all nine games we had plans for guys. When it comes off, everyone's happy talking about it. Sometimes when the guy [we planned for] goes on to make 50 or 100, it's sort of not spoken about or it's forgotten, so yeah, we put a lot of time into different plans for every side we play. A couple of times in that match it came through, so it got a little bit more media time.
You play the sweep and the reverse sweep often against spinners. How have you developed that shot?
My first year in the Netherlands, I was living with Alex Ross from Australia. At the time he was playing state cricket in Australia and I wasn't. I tried to soak up as much information as I could from him. Sweeps was one of the big things that he has in his game. I learned a little bit of that off him and ever since then, it's been something I've prided myself on and I've managed to find ways to make it work.
You've got your core group of senior players in the Netherlands side. What does it mean having these players around?
Wesley [Barresi] has been around for a long time. He's played in and won lots of big games and he is just a fantastic character to have around. The same goes with Max [O'Dowd] and Logan [van Beek] and Paul [van Meekeren]. We've got a fair few senior guys in the group, all reasonably young but with a fair bit of experience. We've all played together for a long time now, so it's a little bit like clockwork playing in this side, which is good.
You also have 20-year-old Michael Levitt in your team among all these senior players.
Michael's been involved for the last three years or so. He was in the qualifiers for the ODIs last year. The last six to 12 months he's been unbelievable - from the SA20 to Nepal to the pro-series fixtures in the Netherlands. He's been pretty much the leading run-scorer in all of those.
T20 batting has gone to a whole new level, looking at the massive scores in the IPL. Have you discussed playing that way as a team?
It's been quite interesting over there [in the IPL]. I think there's obviously a few different rules and the wickets seemed to be playing quite truly over there with some small grounds. But I'm not sure the World Cup will be the same as that. Teams may come in with that same mentality. I think the sides [that will succeed are the ones] that play the conditions the best - whether that is a 220 score or a 160 score. We are going to be playing the conditions. We'll see what that is come that first game in Dallas.