The “secret sauce” for his Rotterdam team in a new European Twenty20 league, according to former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, will be local Dutch players.
Six London-based teams from Glasgow, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast, and Rotterdam will compete in the European T20 Premier League, which was co-founded by Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan.
A company lead by legendary Australian Steve Waugh owns Amsterdam, while former New Zealand internationals Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills manage Edinburgh.
The goal of the ETPL is to promote cricket in the continent. Its first season will include 33 matches from August 26 to September 20.
The Netherlands, a non-Test country, has defeated England, South Africa, and the West Indies in a number of noteworthy international white-ball cricket victories, but Du Plessis is eager to contribute to expanding their pool of talent.
In addition to being the captain of the Rotterdam team, the 41-year-old batsman, who has experience on the international T20 circuit, is also a co-owner with Heinrich Klaasen and Jonty Rhodes, two other former South Africa internationals.
“We, as players, have never been a part of the conversation when it comes to co-owning,” Du Plessis told AFP. “We have always just looked at leagues and you almost become a gun for hire around the world in terms of playing.
“Now there is the opportunity of it being something more.”
Rotterdam will also include the hard-hitting Klaasen, who retired from international competition last year.
However, Du Plessis claimed that his global T20 cricket experience had persuaded him of the significance of local talent to follow in the footsteps of current Netherlands stars like Logan van Beek and Bas de Leede.
“It’s not your overseas players that win you competitions, it’s the local players,” he said.
“You can look around the world and you see the teams that get that right, so I see it as exactly that. It’s not the South Africans coming in from overseas and creating the strength of the team. The real secret sauce for any team is how well do you tap into the local players?”
The opportunity to become a co-owner was too alluring for the 56-year-old Rhodes, who was one of the best fielders of his generation before becoming a coach.
“It is an exciting place to be, (but) it’s a bit scary. I mean, we don’t just copy and paste what other people have done before. That uniqueness of starting something is pretty special.”
Current Indian Premier League standout Klaasen is optimistic about the new league’s success.
“It’s a no-brainer. The names that are involved in this league — I know for sure that it will be a quality league when it starts. I’ve still got a lot of cricket in me. It might be at the back end of my career, but that’s a few years away. So hopefully in five years we will have a great set-up and a great infrastructure and that we develop the game in Europe quite a bit.”
Having been on the losing team in two World Cup games, Klaasen, 34, is well aware of the caliber of Dutch cricket.
“I’ve lost against the Netherlands twice in very crucial moments in my career,” he said.
