'Bulldog' goes Dutch

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

IF the podgy fella in the orange jumper looks familiar to SA’s batsmen when he marks out his run-up at next year’s World T20, that will be because he is Roelof van der Merwe.

The Titans said in a statement on Tuesday that the pugnacious allrounder had left the country to pursue what remained of his international career with the Netherlands.

Van der Merwe wasted no time doing exactly that - he was in the squad for his new national team at Amstelveen on Tuesday in the first of their four T20s against Nepal, but did not make the XI.

He will hope to help propel the Dutch into the World T20 in India in March with a good performance in the qualifying tournament in Ireland and Scotland later this month.

Van der Merwe also hopes to land a county deal. As the holder of a Dutch passport he will be spared being made to jump through bureaucratic hoops in that aim.

Having turned 30 on New Year’s Eve and played the last of his 13 one-day internationals and 13 T20s for SA five years ago, Van der Merwe is not an example of what reactionaries prefer to portray as white player flight.

But the Titans will miss him on the field - he was their leading runscorer in the first-class competition last season, hammering a career-best 205 not out against the Warriors in Benoni in October - and as the epitome of the competitive spirit that has made them one of the most successful franchises in SA.

"The changeroom just won’t be the same without the ‘Bulldog’,” the statement quoted Titans coach Rob Walter as saying.