Bas de Leede ICC Associate Cricketer of the Year 2023
Published at 24 January, 2024Dutch cricketer Bas de Leede (24) is ICC Associate Cricketer of the Year 2023. De Leede owes this honourable award to convincing performances in calendar year 2023, of which his performances during the World Cup in India and in the World Cup qualifying match against Scotland stood out the most.
The ICC has twelve so-called 'Full Members' and 96 Associate countries, of which the Netherlands is one. The only Dutchman to win the award before was all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate in 2008 en 2011.
In the decisive match of the qualifying tournament against Scotland, De Leede first took five Scottish wickets. Scotland made 277 runs. From a very difficult position, De Leede turned the game around as a batsman. Together with Scott Edwards and Saqib Zulfiqar, De Leede guided the Dutch to victory making 123 runs off 92 balls in the process.
The Netherlands had not been able to qualify for the main draw of the ICC Cricket World Cup (50 overs) since 2011. Thanks in part to the spectacular victory over Scotland, the Dutch qualified for the World Cup in India that took place in October and November 2023.
At the World Cup, Bas de Leede, who was born in Nootdorp, made his mark with 67 runs and four wickets against Pakistan. De Leede also played a part in the matches against South Africa and Bangladesh, taking two wickets in both games.
In the end, he was the eleventh most successful bowler of the World Cup with sixteen wickets, ahead of Australians Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, Pakistani Haris Rauf and Englishman Adil Rashid.
Bas de Leede: "I am very happy with this award, although I actually think that the whole team has earned it. It's great that I was able to contribute to our World Cup qualification and consequently the Cricket World Cup. We have a great group of players and I’m convinced there's more to come later this year!"
In June 2024, the Netherlands will play a T20 World Cup (the short game variant of 120 balls per team) in the United States and the Caribbean.
De Leede is currently playing in the ILT20 in the United Arab Emirates with the Desert Vipers and will return to the county of Durham in the English league in April.
