Nannes goes his own way

A Dutch passport holder, born in Australia, who has lived in Japan: Dirk Nannes is a truly globalised cricketer

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For most international cricketers, being left out of a squad leaves only one option: go back to domestic cricket and try harder.

Dirk Nannes chose a different route. A brisk 32-year-old left-arm swing bowler from Melbourne, Nannes was omitted from Australia's 30-man preliminary squad for the 2009 World Twenty20, despite a striking record in the 20-over format in Australia, England and most recently, the Indian Premier League.

His response? The son of Dutch migrants invoked his EU passport to make himself available for the Netherlands.

"I'm not really that fussed that Australia are not picking me," he said.

"Of course I would like to play for them, but I've been given a really good opportunity by the Dutch team.

"If I play for Holland, I will probably make the starting XI. If I was picked in the 30-man squad for Australia, the chances are I wouldn't play and they'll play other people.

"I'm still going to go to the World Cup and I'm still going to play."

If Nannes' attitude appears care-free, it might be because World Cups are nothing new to him.

Until his late 20s, Nannes was a skier, participating in a number of World Cup skiing events and narrowly missing out on selection for Australia's Winter Olympics team. A familiar sensation, you might say.

But Nannes did not give up. He set up his own ski tour business, selling equipment throughout the world. He developed links with Japan, buying a ski lodge there and learning to speak Japanese.

Nannes follows captains Ed Joyce and Rob Key onto the Rose Bowl turf for the Twenty20 Cup final, won by Middlesex

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Such was Nannes' commitment to winter sports ahead of Australia’s summer game, that from 17 to 22, a key stage of a fast bowler’s maturity, Nannes did not play a single cricket match.

Then it all changed.

"I just literally fell into it. I think one year I played eight games and took 30 wickets at (an average of) 11, and someone said I should go down to a district club,” he said.

"So I went down with a mate to Hawthorn CC. I started in the third XI - I did two weeks there, I think - and then one or two seasons in the twos, but again I was travelling overseas between November and February."

Nannes' first-class debut for Victoria in 2006 was unremarkable, taking just two wickets in a Pura Cup win over Western Australia.

But Nannes was soon to find his niche: Twenty20. It just so happened that the shortest form of the game was becoming financially lucrative and increasingly de rigueur.

A match-winning performance of 4-23 in the 2008 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash final helped Victoria retain the trophy, and Nannes' performances had not gone unnoticed.

Middlesex signed him as a homegrown player for 2008, taking advantage of the Nannes family roots in the Low Countries.

Though frustrated by injury, Nannes still took 14 wickets in nine Twenty20 Cup games, including the eighth hat-trick in the competition's history, against Essex at Chelmsford.

Nannes' profitable stint in the Indian Premier League saw him take 15 wickets as the leader of Delhi Daredevils' pace attack

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Nannes helped drive Middlesex to finals day at the Rose Bowl, where they upset the odds by beating Durham and Kent to lift the trophy.

After his whirlwind successes, a stint in the second season of the IPL seemed somehow inevitable. He was snapped up by the Delhi Daredevils, meaning the prospect of opening the bowling alongside the incomparable Glenn McGrath.

But as the wickets piled up, Nannes found himself picked ahead of the great Australian bowler.

"I knew there would be a lot of expectations from me and I would have to perform outstandingly,” said Nannes.

"Maybe one day, I will tell my grandchildren that I was responsible for keeping out the greatest fast bowler of all times of a playing XI."

Nannes could have some more stories to tell if he inflicts some more bruises to members of cricket’s top table come June.