Value addition: Vice-captain O’Dowd and skipper Edwards will be pleased with the utility of the former’s pocket notes.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Netherlands has demanded attention at the cricket World Cup. After stunning South Africa to register one of the World Cup’s biggest upsets of all time, the Men in Orange, ranked lowest among the 10 teams, defeated Bangladesh on Saturday.

The sheet of paper that vice-captain Max O’Dowd often takes out of his pocket when they field has attracted a fair bit of attention too. So what is the story behind it?

‘Best wicketkeeper’

Captain Scott Edwards, who, according to veteran India gloveman Dinesh Karthik, has been the best wicketkeeper at the World Cup, was asked that question by The Hindu. “But I don’t have the greatest memory, so I don’t know how it all began,” he said. “I do a lot of the analysis work with [coach] Ryan [Cook] before the games and he is very good at it.”

Story behind it

O’Dowd had a more detailed answer. “It began with a lot of the analysis work that we do and work on bowlers and batters,” he said. “No, we haven’t done it in notes before the World Cup, but it has been dramatised a little bit, because now every time I have notes in my pocket the camera zooms in on me. We do a lot of work on batters and we have match-ups written down that we think will work against certain batters.”

It worked particularly well in the Netherlands’ win against South Africa at Dharamshala. Remember the dismissal of Rassie van der Dussen, for instance?

“Well, we knew Rassie would try and reverse sweep, and it’s one of his strengths,” the opener said. “But we didn’t think the plan would come off so fast. The notes are just there for us to kind of guide us.”

So how did the notes find their way into his pocket and not anybody else’s?

The messenger

“Well, somebody said the paper with the notes and I said that I would put it in my pocket,” O’Dowd smiled. “It makes sense too, since I am always inside the ring. I just became the messenger.”