When you grow up playing cricket in countries like India, Sri Lanka, Australia, England and others, there’s a lot of support and facilities available for you. There are boards and federations that support young cricketers, and ensure there’s a brilliant system in place for everything. However, it may not be the case in smaller cricketing nations aka the associate nations.
And when you manage to lead an associate nation in cricket for several years going through all the pains and struggles, you’ve done a good job. Regardless of the results, you’ve done a good job knowing that you’ve done it without the support that bigger cricketing nations have. Thus, we salute such captains and one of them is the Dutch captain, Pieter Seelaar.
More about Pieter Seelaar retirement
Seelaar will however, not be known as the Dutch cricketing captain anymore as he recently announced his retirement from international cricket, and that too with immediate effect. This comes right in the middle of the Netherlands vs England ODI series where the visitors are currently leading 2-0. Seelaar has been troubled by a persistent back injury, and that’s what prompted this premature retirement decision.
Only 34 years old, the left-arm spinner played 134 international status games for Netherlands and picked up 115 wickets in those games. He even started batting higher up the order in recent years and he ends his career being known as a genuine all-rounder, ending with a best score of 96* he scored in a T20I against Scotland in 2019. Like him, Ireland’s William Porterfield also retired a couple of days ago.
SEE ALSO: List of top online sports betting websites
“Pieter’s input has been priceless, first as a player and later also as captain. His management style is open, honest and transparent, which has always been appreciated by the players. He can look back upon a wonderful international career which unfortunately comes to an untimely end. We wish him the very best for the future,” said High Performance Manager, Roland Lefebvre.
Earlier today, Netherlands lost to England by 6 wickets in the 2nd ODI and here, Seelaar was not a part of the playing eleven because of the same back injury. He’s been struggling with it since a long time and he decided today was the right time to make this hard decision. Wicket-keeper batsman Scott Edwards took over as captain today, and will take over permanent duties as captain post this too.
Edwards seems to be the right man for the job as he scored two consecutive fifties in the ongoing 2022 England tour of Netherlands. As for Seelaar, he gave a press statement shortly before the game ended itself, saying, “Since 2020, my back problems got worse to such an extent that – much to my regret – I am no longer able to give everything I’ve got.”
📢 ANNOUNCEMENT
Captain Pieter Seelaar announces his retirement
from international cricket due to persistent back injury.More ➡️ https://t.co/tP9bffXDhc#ThankyouPieter ♥️ pic.twitter.com/pnSAHisAmx
— Cricket🏏Netherlands (@KNCBcricket) June 19, 2022
Seelaar made his debut for Netherlands in May 2005 against Warwickshire followed by his ODI debut in July 2006 against Sri Lanka. It was in 2008 that he took over as captain from Peter Borren and has been leading the side ever since. We wish him the best of luck in what lies ahead for the champ! For more updates from the world of sports and cricket, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com.
Register on 10Cric and get 100% first deposit bonus on this betting platform.
