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Cricket in Clogs

Last year, India hosted the World Cup 50 over cricket, which the Netherlands also attended. An unforgettable experience for team, staff and fans, and it prompted former international Jacob-Jan Esmeijer to (once again) write a book in English about Dutch cricket.

Meanwhile, work is underway on Cricket In Clogs (in English, full color, hardcover, hardbound and more than 150 pages of text and images) in which 29 players look back on a total of 29 matches played by the Netherlands from the 1996, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2023 World Cups. Given Orange’s success at the last World Cup in which they managed to win two matches, Cricket In Clogs will be a more than special (orange-tinged) reference book.

The compilation and sale of this book are not unrelated. On the one hand, the great stories and anecdotes of the men in orange should be recorded for the next (cricket-loving) generation. On the other hand, it has a charitable slant. In 2017, Jacob Jan visited Cape Town where he got in touch with a school in Mitchells Plain through the Run4Schools foundation. Residents of this neighborhood, just outside Cape Town, live a tough existence: unemployment is high, the area is infested with gangs and drug use from a young age lurk. The elementary school he attended at the time has about 30 cricketing students who, by necessity, also play sports in their everyday (school) clothes.

Upon returning to the Netherlands, I held a collection for these students from ‘Caradale Primary School’ and was able to use the money raised to have cricket uniforms (pants, shirt and cap – all with the school logo on them) made.

Caradale, however, is not the only elementary school there that plays cricket. There are some 30 schools with a total of 1,000 students in the U9, U11 and U13 age groups. Now it is my intention to provide all these schools with uniforms by 2024 as well. It is planned to publish the book at the end of April 2024, just before the start of the Dutch cricket season.

You can order your book via cricketinclogs.nl to order your book, or contact JJ via j.j.esmeijer@icloud.com. Your contribution is greatly appreciated and you will keep a wonderful reference work!