Paul-Jan Bakker (born 19 August 1957) is a Dutch former international
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er, who also played domestic cricket at
first-class and
List A level in England for
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
from 1986 to 1992, taking 269 wickets across both formats. He later played in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
inaugural
One Day International
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...
match in the
1996 World Cup, before retiring shortly after the tournament. In 2007, he briefly succeeded
Peter Cantrell
Peter Edward Cantrell (born 28 October 1962) is a former Dutch cricketer. He has represented Queensland in the Australian domestic circuit.
Domestic career
He also played 33 first class matches for Queensland and once for an Australian XI.
C ...
as Netherlands coach.
Early life
The son of Hubertus Antonius Bakker and his wife, Wilhelmina Hendrika, Bakker was born at
Vlaardingen
Vlaardingen () is a city in South Holland in the Netherlands. It is located on the north bank of the Nieuwe Maas river at the confluence with the Oude Maas. The municipality administers an area of , of which is land, with residents in .
Geogr ...
in August 1957. He was educated at the Hugo De Groot Scholengemeenschap in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
.
Bakker played his
club cricket
Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obs ...
in the Netherlands for Quick Hagg Cricket Club in the
Hoofdklasse
The Vierde Divisie, formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general.
Background
The league is divided into two sections: Saturday and Sunday. This is a result of ...
; he had previously completed his
National Service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The l ...
and played four seasons of club cricket in South Africa for the Green Point Cricket Club in
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, whilst spending the winters working at ski resorts in the
Swiss Alps
The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps (german: Schweizer Alpen, french: Alpes suisses, it, Alpi svizzere, rm, Alps svizras), represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss ...
,
where he organised ski holidays.
He came to England in the summer of 1985 to play for
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
-based
Old Tauntonians Cricket Club
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
in the
Southern League,
doing enough to secure a trial with
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
.
Cricket career
The following year, he made history by becoming the first Dutchman to play in the
County Championship
The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...
,
when he played against
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
at
Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
; prior to that, he had made his debut in
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...
(the third Dutchman to play first-class cricket after
Carst Posthuma
Carst Posthuma (11 January 1868 – 21 December 1939) was a Dutch cricket player of the late 19th/early 20th century. He was a left-handed batsman and left-arm fast bowler.
He played 72 times for the Dutch national team up to 1928, when he wou ...
and
Bill Glerum) for Hampshire a week prior to this match, when he played against the touring
Indians
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
at
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
.
He also made his debut in
List A one-day cricket against the
Combined Universities
The British Universities cricket team was a cricket team whose players were drawn from university students studying in Great Britain. The team played under the title of Combined Universities until 1995. The team played List A cricket from 1975 t ...
at
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
in the
1986 Benson & Hedges Cup
The 1986 Benson & Hedges Cup was the fifteenth edition of cricket's Benson & Hedges Cup.
The competition was won by Middlesex County Cricket Club.
Fixtures and results
Group stage
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Quarter-finals
...
.
The month following his County Championship debut, Bakker played for the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
in the
ICC Trophy
The ICC World Cup Qualifier (previously called the ICC Trophy and officially known as the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Qualifier) is a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that serves as the culmination of the Cricket World Cup qualifi ...
,
playing in all eight of the Netherlands matches in the tournament,
where the Netherlands missed on qualification for the
1987 World Cup, having lost to
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
in the tournaments final. Bakker made an immediate impact in the tournament, taking
5 for 18 in his first match against
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
;
he finished the tournament with 21 wickets, with only teammate Ronnie Elferink and the Dane
Ole Mortensen
Ole Henrik Mortensen (born 29 January 1958) is a Danish first-class cricketer, probably the best his country has produced. A fast-medium right-arm bowler, in a first-class career with Derbyshire that ran from 1983 to 1994 he took 434 wickets at ...
taking more.
Bakker played three first-class and List A matches for Hampshire in 1987,
claiming his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket in this season, with figures of 7 for 31 against
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. By the end of the following season, he had established himself in the Hampshire side.
His standout season for Hampshire came in 1989,
when he was Hampshire's leading first-class wicket taker that season with 77 wickets from 21 matches at an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
of 22.49;
he was the seventh-highest wicket taker in first-class cricket in England during that season.
He also had a successful season in one-day cricket in 1989, taking 24 wickets at an average of 23.19.
His performances for Hampshire in 1989 earned him the Hampshire Press Cricketer of the Year award.
His one-day form continued across to the Netherlands in 1989, with him playing in a 50-over match against a strong touring
Australian side at
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
. His wickets included
Mark Taylor and
Dean Jones, who had both just dominated the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
bowlers in the
Ashes Test match series. The following season, he made sixteen first-class appearances for Hampshire, taking 37 wickets; however, in stark contrast to the previous season, these wickets came at an average of 38.89 and saw him take just one five-wicket haul.
His one-day bowling during this season remained consistent, with 17 wickets at an average of 32.23.
During the 1990 season, he made his second appearance in the ICC Trophy in
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
, making two appearances during the tournament against
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
and
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
.
For Hampshire, Bakker found his opportunities limited in 1991 and 1992 in both first-class and one-day cricket, leading to his release at the end of the 1992 season. Often opening the bowling with
Malcolm Marshall,
and described as having a "probing
line and length",
Bakker took 193 wickets for Hampshire in 69 first-class matches at an average of 28.01; he took seven five wicket hauls and had best figures of 7 for 31. In one-day cricket, he took 76 wickets in 62 one-day matches at an average of 26.19; he took two five wicket hauls, with best figures of 5 for 17.
Following the end of his
county cricket
Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...
career, he returned to the Netherlands and continued to play for Quick Haag, though it was noted his bowling had lost some pace by this point.
Bakker was selected in the Netherlands squad for the
1996 World Cup in the Indian subcontinent, playing in the Netherlands first ever
One Day International
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...
during the tournament against
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
at
Vadodara
Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...
at the advanced age of 38. He took two wickets in the match, those of
Chris Harris and
Dipak Patel. He played in all of the Netherlands five matches during the tournament, but took just one further wicket in these matches. His solitary ODI run came as a result of an umpiring error against the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
, when Bakker and
Robert van Oosterom scampered a
bye off the final ball of the Dutch innings, but the bye was not signalled by the
umpire
An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection.
The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...
and so was credited as a run to Bakker; technically, without the signal for a bye, he should have been out caught as the ball carried through to
wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...
Imtiaz Abbasi
Imtiaz Abbasi ( ur, ), (born 9 June 1968) is a former Pakistani-born cricketer who played for the United Arab Emirates national cricket team. As a wicket-keeper, Imtiaz Abbasi made his mark in his first-class debut for Karachi against Quetta i ...
. He made one final appearance for the Netherlands following the World Cup, in the 1st Round of the
1996 NatWest Trophy
The 1996 NatWest Trophy was the 16th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 25 June and 7 September 1996. The tournament was won by Lancashire County Cricket Club who defeated Essex Co ...
against
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
,
after which he retired. For the Netherlands, he played 51 matches over a thirteen-year period (having debuted in a minor match against the
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...
(MCC) in 1983), taking 161 wickets at an average of exactly 13.
Post-retirement
After his retirement, Bakker spent most of his time living in Switzerland. Following the
2007 World Cup, he was appointed Netherlands coach on a temporary basis, replacing outgoing coach
Peter Cantrell
Peter Edward Cantrell (born 28 October 1962) is a former Dutch cricketer. He has represented Queensland in the Australian domestic circuit.
Domestic career
He also played 33 first class matches for Queensland and once for an Australian XI.
C ...
. He coached the Netherlands for their first three matches of the
2007–08 ICC Intercontinental Cup
The 2007–08 ICC Intercontinental Cup was the fourth ICC Intercontinental Cup tournament, an international first-class cricket tournament between nations who have not been awarded Test status by the International Cricket Council. The first fixtu ...
, prior to the appointment of
Peter Drinnen
Peter John Drinnen (born 5 October 1967) is a former Australian cricketer who played at first-class level for Queensland. He later coached Scotland and the Netherlands at international level. He is currently head coach of Brisbane's Valley Dis ...
in January 2008.
Bakker remains a keen cricket spectator and is involved with the touring CTC de Flamingo’s, who played the MCC at
Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...
in 2017.
He is the holder of a private pilots licence.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakker, Paul-Jan
1957 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Vlaardingen
Dutch cricketers
Hampshire cricketers
Expatriate cricketers in England
Netherlands One Day International cricketers
Coaches of the Netherlands national cricket team
Dutch cricket coaches