Former Dutch player recalls how he had to wait a year to get Sachin Tendulkar’s autograph on a World Cup match ball | Cricket-world-cup News

Netherlands all-rounder Bas de Leede picked up four wickets and scored a brisk 67 in the World Cup game against Pakan in Hyderabad. Twenty years ago, his father Tim de Leede troubled India with a spell of 4 for 35, also accounting for the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, the current India coach.Tim, 55, who is with the Netherlands A team in Spain for the European T10 League, says the regret of not pulling off an upset after restricting India to 204 remains. Netherlands lost 66 runs that day.
“I think about it every now and then. I regret that we didn’t get the runs. It was our golden opportunity to beat India. We missed out,” Tim tells The Indian Express.
Interestingly, Tim’s first-ever wicket in international cricket was that of Tendulkar’s. “I have kept that ball,” Tim, who has played in three World Cups, says.

“We played the 1996 World Cup, and then we missed out in 1999 but we did manage to qualify for the South Africa World Cup in 2003. I thought that would be my last World Cup. I had never taken a wicket and hadn’t scored a fifty. I was 35 then, I trained as hard as I have ever done. I thought no matter if I get a wicket or score a fifty, I must give 100 per cent to the team. Luckily I got a wicket in the first match, and it was Tendulkar’s.”
He picked up some prized wickets in the 2003 World Cup, Dravid of course and also Pakan great Inzamam-ul-Haq.
“I got Inzi’s (Inzamam) wicket as well. I played in 2007 as well, where I was lucky enough to get the wickets of Adam Gilchr and Matthew Hayden,” he adds.
Tim was adjudged player of the match for his exceptional spell against India, but it took him almost a year to get the match ball signed Tendulkar.
“I was man of the match at Paarl. I had to attend the press conference. After the presser, I walked past the umpire Peter Willey who asked, ‘you want the match ball because you are not going to take Sachin’s wicket again.’ I said yeah, why not. Willey said get it signed then. I knocked on that dressing room gate, but nobody answered, they had already left. In my mind, I thought, I probably will never see that guy again. I kept that white cricket ball.”
A year later, when the Indian team was playing a tri-series, also involving Pakan and Australia in Amstelveen, Tendulkar was injured.

But soon a fortuitous break came Tim de Leede’s way. Tendular was in The Hague to consult a physio for a tennis elbow injury. He happened to+ de Leede’s friend.
“A friend of mine, who is a physio from The Hague, called me up and said, ‘you will never guess who I am treating now.’ I asked who? he replied, ‘it is Sachin Tendulkar.’ My friend said ‘he will be here every single day’.”
The next day, he took the ball, got on his bi-cycle and rushed to the clinic around lunch time.
“Sachin was walking in the streets of The Hague, nobody recognised him. He loved it. We had a 45-minute chat. He remembered that game and told me an interesting story.
Tim de Leede with his son Bas, when he was seven-year-old
“India came to the World Cup after losing against New Zealand (5-2). Then we bowled them for 200 hundred, and then they lost the next match (Australia) as well. He said ‘my wife said, Sachin, you have to do something because people are going crazy’. Sachin had to come on national TV to tell people everything will be alright. He scored 98 against Pakan, he must be under so much pressure but he did it. Which is so admirable,” he added.
Tendulkar had to make a plea for support on the eve of their do-or-die game against Zimbabwe. In Calcutta, an effigy of India’s captain Sourav Ganguly had been burnt, and in Allahabad, Mohammad Kaif’s house was splashed with paint and oil. Tendulkar had said: “We are very disappointed with the kind of performances we have put up and I also understand the disappointment you have gone through. I am just here to assure all of you that we will be fighting in all the games until the last ball is bowled. So please continue to support us, as you have done in the past, which will surely help us.”
Like father like son
Twenty years down the line, his son Bas de Leede picked up two wickets in the Netherland’s big win over South Africa in Dharamsala.
“He started as a six-year-old, and he just loved it. the time he was 17 .. we all knew his ability, after finishing school he was picked for the national team all out of the blue,” he recalls.
“Ryan Campbell was the coach, who picked him and gave him some games. This is when we realised hey he can have a future in cricket.”
Tim, who runs a small sports shop in The Hague, says the status of cricketers in the Netherlands hasn’t changed in the past four decades
“There is no future in cricket in the Netherlands. We might have three professional players and most of them have a full-time job. They train before or after work and that makes it difficult for them. Paul van Meekeren used to work in Uber Eats. Bas used to work as a delivery boy. We have this supermarket, you order it online and they deliver it to your home. He used to drive a little electric car. For us it is normal, you just work for your family. That’s how it is,” he says.
However, Tim didn’t have to do odd jobs during his playing days.
“I worked for Dutch telecom, who gave me a 32 hours contract instead of 40 and they would let me take time off when I am touring. If I have a three-week tour, it will not affect my holidays. I was lucky in that way,” he says.
Coaching a tough job in the Netherlands
For the past fifteen years, Tim also runs his own academy and he says his first job is to get the boys and girls to play cricket. Whether they will play for the Netherlands or not is not on his mind.
“I was the most relaxed coach. The boys and girls played under me and they absolutely loved it. It is about bringing them back for their next training. That is my goal. The feedback I got, whether they stopped playing or not, is that they had a great time. For me that’s the only thing which is important.”

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“In football and field hockey, they use artificial pitches now. We can’t play cricket on such surfaces. The season of those two sports has been extended to mid-June and July. That’s the middle of our short cricket calendar, we struggle to get Dutch kids to play cricket. From September, you can’t play cricket due to the cold.”
Tim says back home the World Cup is not televised.
“The cricket lovers watch it on international live-streaming channels; otherwise, there is no interest. It hasn’t changed much yet but good news is that the T20 World Cup to be played in the Caribbean and the USA is likely to be televised,” he adds.