ICC World T20 2014: Logan van Beek’s unique ‘feat’

If he plays one of the international matches in the upcoming ICC World T20 2014, Logan van Beek will be the part of a rather unusual list — or rather start a new list all by himself. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the record van Beek is about to set.

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The ICC World T20 2014 this season tees off with the Bangladesh-Afghanistan clash at Mirpur on March 16; Netherlands play their first match the next day against UAE at Sylhet, which will not be given a T20I status. Even if they do not qualify for the main stage of the tournament, however, Netherlands will get two matches with “international” status — against Zimbabwe on March 19 and against Ireland on March 21 — both at Sylhet.

Featuring in the Netherlands squad is a tall, strongly built all-rounder called Logan Verjus van Beek. Born in Christchurch, van Beek had been selected for the World Under-19 Basketball Championships in 2009 and ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2010 for New Zealand. He has become eligible for the European country because his father is a Dutch citizen.

[Note: Peter Borren, the Dutch captain for the World Twenty20, has also played for New Zealand Under-19.]

Van Beek is certainly not the first cricketer to be born in one country and play cricket for another. Several men have done that. He is also the grandson of Sammy Gullien, the only cricketer to have played Test cricket for West Indies and New Zealand, but that does not make him unique either: Vic Richardson, Denis Compton, and Maurice Tremlett have all had Test-playing grandsons (Richardson had three).

However, while the Chappell brothers, Nick Compton, and Chris Tremlett have all played for England, van Beek will not be out to play for any of the two countries his grandfather had represented: if he makes his debut in the upcoming World T20, he will be playing for a third nation.

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Jahangir Khan had played for India while Majid and Bazid have turned up for Pakistan; George and Ron Headley had won West Indies Test caps while Dean had represented England; not only do they have three generations playing international cricket, they also have the grandfathers and grandsons playing for different countries.

Gullien and van Beek would not qualify for the three-generation criterion; but as for a grandfather and a grandson playing for different countries, they will definitely make the cut; what will make their feat even more remarkable is the fact that they would have represented three countries in the process [and I am not even complicating things further by mentioning that van Beek has played for New Zealand Under-19!].

So, when you see van Beek taking field in Dutch oranges in Bangladesh, do not forget to text your friends and earn brownie points for being known as a cricket geek!

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Deputy Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs at https://ovshake.blogspot.in and can be followed on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/ovshake42)

ICC World T20 2014 schedule: Match time table with venue details