Netherlands appoint Ryan ten Doeschate as mentor for South Africa tour

Netherlands have roped in their former cricketer, Ryan ten Doeschate, as mentor for their upcoming tour of South Africa. Back in October, the 41-year-old veteran retired from all forms of professional cricket after taking part in the T20 World Cup. The Dutch team lost all their three matches in the qualifying stage and failed to qualify for the Super 12 of the multi-nation event.

Ten Doeschate scored a duck against Ireland after which he didn’t get to bat in the match against Namibia. Thereafter, he didn’t take part in the game against Sri Lanka where the Netherlands were bowled out for 44. Ahead of the bilateral series on African soil, Netherlands’s head coach Ryan Campbell sounded optimistic about bouncing back after a poor show in the World Cup.

“After the disappointment of the World Cup, we will look to bounce back against a very good South African outfit. I’m extremely excited to take HCC youngsters Boris Gorlee, Musa Ahmad and Clayton Floyd with us. The experience of living and breathing international cricket in South Africa will be invaluable for them,” Campbell was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo.

The Netherlands are set to play three ODIs against South Africa on November 26, 28 and December 1. All the matches will take place at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. The Proteas, led by Temba Bavuma, are currently a part of the World Cup where they are fighting to claim a berth in the semis.

Netherlands squad

Pieter Seelaar (C), Colin Ackermann, Bas de Leede, Vivian Kingma, Max O’Dowd, Scott Edwards, Boris Gorlee, Clayton Floyd, Musa Ahmed, Brandon Glover, Fred Klaassen, Roelof van der Merwe, Saqib Zulfiqar, Stephan Myburgh, Shane Snater, Timm van der Gugten

As far as Ten Doeschate is concerned, he had a short, but illustrious career for the Netherlands. In 33 ODIs and 24 T20Is, the right-hander notched over 2,000 runs with five centuries and 12 half-centuries. In the 2011 50-overs World Cup, he also racked up two tons against Ireland and England.

Ten Doeschate was also a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ squads that won the 2012 and 2014 editions of the Indian Premier League. He played 820 matches, combining first-class, List A and T20 cricket.