Dirk Nannes is more Australian than Dutch, but bowled the first ball of the Twenty20 world championships wearing a bright orange shirt. He is more Victorian than Indian, but soon will be forced into a choice between his home state and his Delhi Indian Premier League franchise.
It's a decision he is dreading, but a reality in the age of scrambled allegiances for which the 33-year-old was a symbol as he stepped onto the international stage on Friday at Lord's, where Holland pulled off one of the great upsets in limited-overs history.
"It's weird," the fast bowler said before making his debut for the Netherlands. "I've been playing for so many teams lately, four different teams in the past year (including English county Middlesex). It's a bit strange." He takes a moment to think about which team he feels most attached to.
Dutch is the language his parents spoke at home when they didn't want the kids to understand what they were saying. "When the guys here speak I can tell what they're talking about but I can't really speak it," Nannes said of his Netherlands teammates. "I'm pretty much the new guy in town." Middlesex was the county that hired him as a Kolpak player courtesy of his Dutch passport, and Delhi was shopping for an express fast bowler.
Victoria, Nannes says after a while, feels most like home, "because I've played for them the most and that's my full-time job. That's not to say if I go out and play with everyone else I won't feel the same after a while".
Nannes can no longer play for Middlesex because he pledged his first-class allegiance to the Bushrangers last summer, but will face a very modern dilemma in choosing whether he plays for Delhi or Victoria in the Champions League Twenty20 in October. If he represents the Daredevils, his home state will receive $250,000 in compensation.
"How the hell is that my choice then?" Nannes said. "I think it's a bit hard that the player chooses because that's a conflict of interest, I would have thought. I'd like it if we didn't have the choice."
Nannes excels at Twenty20 because "I bowl fast with the wrong arm, for a start. I guess I can be unpredictable and when I'm bowling well I have a way of being able to produce dot balls when I need to". These talents have enabled him to travel the world but they were not recognised when the Australian selectors named an initial squad of 30 for the tournament.
Nannes instead used his parents' heritage to join the Netherlands, but under International Cricket Council rules that does not preclude him from being picked for Australia another time.
"I can play for Holland one day, Australia the next, but I can't go the other way," he said. "If they want to pick me, sure, of course I'd love to.
"They announced their intentions when they didn't put me in the 30, so I'm not holding my breath."
Nannes is adamant that his comments should not be construed as bitterness, which is not to say he wouldn't have liked some recognition for his success with Victoria.
"I've got nothing to prove, I'm just a bloke going out and playing cricket and whatever comes my way comes my way," Nannes said. "I've been close to the leading wicket-taker in Australia in Twenty20 for two years … You just want to be recognised, to say, 'Bloody hell, you're doing all right.'
"There's never been any recognition of that. It's not that you're not playing, because at the end of the day if it comes down to a squad of 15 I'm not going to get a game, I know that."
Nannes has also aroused English curiosities this week because of his non-cricketing talents, which include elite skiing and speaking Japanese, though his ski business is being run by someone else while he builds his cricket career.
He kept Glenn McGrath out of the Delhi team, but insists it was a team balance thing and earned rave reviews from India's maverick opener Virender Sehwag.
"I don't think about cricket all day every day like some people, and that's been of huge benefit to me," he said.
"I don't stress about it if I have a couple of shit games, but I am enjoying it while I'm doing it."
