Produced by: Hitansh Gaur
The Netherlands cricket team qualified for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in July after defeating Scotland in their last qualifier match. The team became the tenth participant of the tournament and travelled to India last week to start their preparations.
The Netherlands’ team landed on September 20 to begin their preparation but before they started their practice, the Netherlands entourage inducted four new net bowlers that they have recruited with the help of country wide search in India.
The European team had earlier posted an advertisement for net bowlers to help them practise in Bengaluru. People from all parts of the country sent their videos but in the end they chose just four bowlers. While one works in Rajasthan HC, another is surprisingly a delivery agent for online food delivery platform, Swiggy.
Hemant Kumar is an Assistant Administrative Officer in Rajasthan High Court, but cricket is his passion and he is a left arm pacer. He has been selected by the Netherlands team but he has been a net bowler previously with the IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2022 and Rajasthan Royals in this year’s IPL season. Hemant Kumar belongs to Churu district of Rajasthan.
Rajamani Prasad is the second net bowler for the Netherlands team as he has a great amount of experience. Prasad hails from Hyderabad and has played for the Hyderabad State Cricket Association in the past. He is a left arm pacer and is currently part of IPL team Chennai Super Kings as a net bowler.
From Kurukshetra district of Haryana, Harsh Sharma is a left arm orthodox spinner. He helped his University team win the North Zone Inter University Championship while also ending as runners up in the All India Inter University Championship. Sharma has also been a part of the Mumbai-based camp of Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The 29-year-old Lokesh Kumar was described by KNCB or Royal Dutch Cricket Federation as a ‘mystery bowler’. Kumar, who currently works for Swiggy as a delivery agent, has been playing cricket for the past eight years. He started out as a pacer but has now developed into a spin bowler. For the past four years, he has been playing in the fifth division of Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA). Kumar’s dream is to play for an IPL team.
The four bowlers were hired for just a five day period as the Netherlands staff posted a video on X (Twitter) bidding adieu to the net bowlers on September 25.
Netherlands will begin their World Cup journey on October 5 against Pakistan at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. But before that they have two warm-up matches against Australia and India on September 30 and October 3 respectively. They will face India in the group stage of the tournament on November 12.