From oranje to green and gold

Dutch cricket has achieved a great deal in the last 20 years, perhaps more than it ought to have done, if you consider that so few people play the sport in a country with a small population. The estimate of active cricket players is somewhere between 4000 and 6000. Ireland has well over ten times this number of regular cricketers.

If not for the input of their overseas imports, Netherlands could never have made World Cups or World T20 events. One of those involved in recent Dutch success is Australian Tom Cooper, born in Wollongong, New South Wales, to a Dutch mother.

Cooper is an aggressive batsman seen for a large part of his career as a white-ball specialist. He came to the attention of Australian cricket fans when he played an innings that matched a Chris Gayle effort shot for shot while playing for the Prime Minister's XI against the touring West Indies. Since then he has become a regular in all formats for South Australia, and averaged over 50 in last year's Sheffield Shield.

When Cooper is in form he is capable of destroying opposition attacks. His 175 against Queensland in last season's Shield was an example of this ability to take the game to the bowlers, even though eventually it turned out to be in a losing cause, thanks to Usman Khawaja's brilliant 182, which helped the Bulls chase down 471.

How Cooper ended up an international cricketer was a complete surprise. He didn't know playing for Netherlands was a possibility, having applied for a Dutch passport only because he wanted to travel easily in and out of Europe without visas.

He was playing for a club side in Scotland when he got a phone call.

"It just so happened that the club I played for in Dundee, the Dutch coach at the time, Peter Drinnen, had played there about ten years prior to me being there," Cooper said. "He had stayed in touch with all the hierarchy at the club.

"I averaged 100 for the season, and somehow the word got to him that I had come in on a Dutch passport. Out of the blue I got a voice message during the night saying, 'Have you ever thought of coming over and playing in Holland?' It hadn't even crossed my mind."

But it wasn't just a case of turning up and getting a spot in the national team. Cooper was invited over to play a season in the Netherlands.

"They didn't want to just to pick me straight into the side, because obviously there is a bit of controversy regarding non-Dutch born players." To avoid any ill-feeling, Cooper says, it was important to play in Dutch domestic cricket. "I organised with one of the clubs through the KNCB [the Netherlands cricket board] for me to come over and play the season with the intention to get into the Dutch set-up.

"I was probably one of the first guys brought into the Dutch set-up in this way. I went about it the right way by playing that season there and getting to know a bit about Dutch cricket."

The controversy that Cooper speaks of is one that most cricket-playing nations, from Full Members on down, are familiar with: "foreign" players arriving to represent another country - a phenomenon that is now a part of modern sport.

Dutch-born player Pieter Seelaar says he is comfortable with imports as long as they make the team better. "Guys like Tom Cooper are guys who are giving us something that we don't have."

By 2010, Cooper was a fixture of the Dutch set-up when he was available. He has been representing South Australia for the entire period that he has been a Netherlands player and freely admits his ambitions lie with the gold and green of Australia. "All along - and Dutch cricket has known this - my goal and my dream has been to play for Australia. Up until that late-night phone message it hadn't even crossed my mind that I was eligible or that there was an opportunity to play for Netherlands. They've always been aware that my No. 1 goal is playing for Australia."

It was not an opportunity Cooper felt he could turn down, and one his brother Ben also took up.

"To get the opportunity to play in a World Cup, in my opinion, can only be good. If you can perform and get your name known, then who knows? Dirk Nannes went from the Dutch side to the Australian side, and who is to say if it was helpful, but it certainly got him in the limelight. The more opportunities you can get, the better. You have to score runs or take wickets when you get that opportunity, but it would be silly to turn it down."

In recent months Cooper has found his way into the Australia A side, and he scored a one-day hundred against the National Performance Squad in what was in essence a trial match. He also did reasonably well in the games against South Africa, but he is not ready to close the door on his involvement with the Dutch team just yet.

"Being an Associate nation, it doesn't directly affect being picked by the Australian side," Cooper said. "So I don't have to put an end date on it. I just have to wait and see where it goes. From a selfish point of view, I would like to score a load more runs this year and get my name right up there for Australian selection, but if that doesn't happen and further opportunities arrive with the Dutch team I would be silly to close the door on them, because they have done a lot for me along the way."

The direction that Cooper's career takes from here depends a lot on how well his form holds up this Australian summer. Netherlands failed to qualify for next year's World Cup, so there is no rush for him to make a judgement either way. South Australia will be hoping for similar returns from him next season, and those kinds of numbers could well see Cooper pushing for Australian selection. Currently he has the best of both worlds, but Netherlands could well be better off if he doesn't find himself in possession of a baggy green.