Maartje Alexander Köster (born 3 March 1975) is a Dutch former

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played as a right-handed batter. She appeared in one Test match and 46

One Day Internationals One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four year ...

for

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

between 1995 and 2007, including playing at the

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

and 2000 World Cups and in the Netherlands' inaugural Test match. Born in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

, Köster made her One Day International (ODI) debut at the age of 20, playing two matches in the 1995 edition of the

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

, hosted in Ireland.Women's ODI matches played by Maartje Köster
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 October 2015. At the 1997 World Cup in India, she played in all of her team's matches, but scored only 31 runs from four innings. Köster remained a fixture in the Dutch team throughout the rest of the decade, and began to be used higher in the order, including on several occasions as an

opening batter In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

. During the Dutch tour of Sri Lanka in March 1999, she scored what was to be her only ODI half-century, making 58 * from 89 balls coming in fifth in the batting order. At the 2000 World Cup in New Zealand, Köster featured in five of a possible seven matches, scoring 65 runs. Against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, she topscored with 36 from 85 balls, opening the batting with Caroline de Fouw. Outside of the European Championship, Köster's next international tournament for the Netherlands was the

2003 IWCC Trophy The 2003 IWCC Trophy was an international women's cricket tournament held in the Netherlands from 21 to 26 July 2003. Organised by the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC). It was the inaugural edition of what is now the World Cup Qualif ...

, the qualifier for the 2005 World Cup. At that tournament, she scored 111 runs from five innings, but was dismissed only twice. Her consequent

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 55.50 was the second-best overall at the tournament, behind teammate Pauline te Beest. In two matches, Köster was the top-scorer for the Netherlands, making 40 * against the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

and 49 against

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. In July and August 2007,

went on a tour of the Netherlands, playing three ODIs and a Test – the first (and so far only) Test match played by any Dutch team, men or women. Selected in the Test squad, Köster scored 29 runs from 178 balls in the first innings, and added nine more runs in the second. Her match total of 38 runs was surpassed by only wicket-keeper Violet Wattenberg, who made 52. In the ODI series, Köster played in only the first match, which was her last international game – she was selected in the squad for the 2007 European Championship, but did not play. She finished her career with 46 ODI appearances, behind only Pauline te Beest for the Netherlands, although that mark has since been equalled by Helmien Rambaldo and beaten by

Carolien Salomons Carolien Aimee Salomons (born 20 July 1974) is a former Dutch international cricketer whose career for the national women's side spanned from 1995 to 2011. She played for the Netherlands at both the 1997 Events January * January 1 – ...

. Köster is one of only five Dutchwomen to pass 500 runs in ODIs.Netherlands Women / Records / Women's One-Day Internationals / Most matches
– ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Koster, Maartje 1975 births Living people Dutch women cricketers Netherlands women Test cricketers Netherlands women One Day International cricketers Sportspeople from Utrecht (city) 20th-century Dutch women 21st-century Dutch women