PM Narendra Modi: Cricket diplomacy has a long history in politics. Cricket has worked to connect countries located in different parts of the world. A glimpse of this was seen in the Netherlands on Saturday during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tour of 5 countries, where the PM discussed cricket and also discussed the contribution of the Indian community in Netherlands cricket.
Praising the contribution of the Indian community to Netherlands cricket, the Prime Minister said that India had hosted the T20 World Cup 2026. Netherlands participated in the T20 World Cup and impressed with their performance. India had become the world champion, but Netherlands had given a tough competition to the Indian team and surprised the world with their performance.
Netherlands is a rapidly emerging country in the world of cricket. Netherlands were part of Group A along with India in the group stage at the T20 World Cup 2026. Netherlands had won against Namibia in 4 league matches, while had to face defeats against India, USA and Pakistan. Netherlands had lost three matches, but in all three matches the team had given tough competition to the opposition teams. Netherlands also came to India to participate in the ODI World Cup 2023. The World Cup was very memorable for the Netherlands. The team had registered big wins against teams like South Africa and Bangladesh.
Aryan Dutt, who was included in the Netherlands team for T20 World Cup 2026, was of Indian origin. 23-year-old Aryan Dutt made his debut for Netherlands in 2021. He has played 53 ODI and 30 T20 matches so far. Aryan Dutt is an off spinner. He has 62 wickets in ODI and 30 wickets in T20. Teja Nidamanuru and Vikramjit Singh have also played for the Netherlands.
