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Cricket PlayersLike father, Bas de Leede leads Netherlands to victory
Bas de Leede led Netherlands to a T20 World Cup victory over Namibia, following in the footsteps of his father Tim
The de Leede family has made it a tradition to excel at World Cups, be it 50 overs or T20s.
Twenty three years ago, Tim de Leede had excelled in an ODI World Cup contest against India when he picked up 4/35, including the prized wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Although India managed to win that opening game of the 2003 tournament in Paarl, Tim was named Player-of-the-Match for his brilliant bowling.
On Tuesday, it was Tim’s son Bas who excelled at the Ferozeshah Kotla here as he took Netherlands to a seven-wicket victory against Namibia to earn their biggest victory (in terms of wickets) at the T20 World Cup. Bas took 2/20 in his three overs before hammering an unbeaten 72 off 48 deliveries (5x4, 4x6) to help Netherlands chase down Namibia’s 157-run target. The Dutch reached 159/3 in 18 overs.
“Yeah, it’s really special, you know, coming from a cricketing family in the Netherlands, to be able to perform and hopefully make my family proud is really special,” Player-of-the-Match Bas said after the match.
Playing in his fourth T20 World Cup, the 26-year-old comes from probably the most illustrious cricketing family of the Netherlands. His grandfather Frans, who died in 2016 at the age of 83, played cricket in the Netherlands and England.
Tim, the best player in the Dutch team he played in, featured in three ODI World Cups in 1996, 2003 and 2007 where he also picked up the treasured wickets of former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and the destructive Australia opener Matthew Hayden. He went on to captain the team. The allrounder also played County cricket for Northamptonshire and Sussex.
Now a coach, the 58-year-old Tim recently helped the Dutch women’s cricket team qualify for the T20 World Cup in England and Wales in June-July. Bas’ cousin, wicketkeeper-batter Babette is the captain of the women’s team.
Bas’ younger brother Tom plays for the Dutch U19 team while his nephew Stijn plays age group cricket in the Netherlands. All of them have come from the Voorburg Cricket Club in South Holland.
Bas is proud of his heritage. Every time he was asked about his family, he grinned ear-to-ear. Asked if he had taken any tips from his father before coming here for the tournament, Bas smiled. “Not too much, to be honest. He played in the era where T20 cricket wasn’t a massive thing yet.
“Three years ago in the 50-over World Cup, I spoke to him a little bit about India. But, you know, times have changed. It’s more about him showing his support to me rather than trying to get involved with a lot of tips, because I think cricket has changed a lot since he played.”
Having got extremely close to beating Pakistan in Colombo in the tournament opener on Saturday, the Dutch men took off with their victory over Namibia. With ambitions of qualifying for the Super 8s, they next face USA in Chennai on Friday before taking on India on February 18.
“We’ve had a lot of discussion as a team about how we wanted to play this World Cup and I think the mindset change of being a 160 team to hopefully now being able to score 180 or 200 has really helped the purpose of training,” said Bas, who was named the ICC Associate Men’s Cricketer of the Year in 2023.
“We’ve had three months indoors in the Netherlands in the freezing cold. First, we came to Chennai, had a preparation camp and then now in India it’s nice. It’s a nicer climate than back home at the moment. It’s nice to see the work that we put in as a group back home to come out in the games.”
