5 players who moved from Associate to Full Member nation

2. Dirk Nannes (Netherlands to Australia)

Remember that tall lanky fast bowler who turned up for the Delhi Daredevils during the second edition of the Indian Premier League in 2009? Born in Victoria, Dirk Nannes made his debut for his state in February of 2006  but only managed 17 First-Class and 15 List-A games over the course of the next three years.

During that time, Twenty20 cricket had started to set the ball rolling and it was in this format of the game that Nannes carved out a niche for himself in domestic T20 tournaments leading into the 2009 edition of the IPL. The 2009 season saw Nannes emerge as one of the cornerstones of the Delhi Daredevils bowling unit. The left-armer bagged 15 wickets in 13 games at an average of 24.80.

Soon after the IPL, Nannes used his Dutch passport to make his International debut for the Netherlands in the 2009 T20 World Cup in England where he took the new ball in his side’s famous win over the hosts in the tournament opener. Little did we know that his Netherlands career would end in the tournament itself. Nannes played his last game for the Dutch against Pakistan, a few days later on June 09, and three months later, he was called up to make his Australia ODI debut against Scotland.

Ten months later, Nannes was one half of Australia’s pace bowling attack alongside Mitchell Johnson during their 2010 World T20 campaign in the Caribbean. In what was a hugely successful tournament for the Aussies, Nannes played his part brilliantly, bagging 14 wickets at 13.07. In all, Nannes played 1 ODI and 17 T20Is for the Aussies. His last international for Australia was a T20I match against Sri Lanka at the MCG in the summer of 2010.