Converstation with Gerrit van Laer
All over you
Honorary member Gerrit van Laer grew up with sports. His grandmother was one of the better golf players in our country in her day. His mother was squash champion of the Netherlands. Sister Lout played hockey at the highest level. That Gerrit became one of the most attacking and dangerous opening batsmen we have had in the Netherlands, stems from a decision by his then captain Lout de Villeneuve. Boisterous as he could be, Gerrit had quite a few difficulties with slower bowlers. "You can open it from now on," he was told by his captain. Many opening bowlers suffered!
He hates to be asked about his own highlights. Anyone who wants to know something about this can consult the statistics of the clubs and the KNCB. In addition, he adds that the listing on the Cramer McLean cup, which he won in 1972, is incorrect. According to him, his innings is not against HBS, but ACC.
Pakistan always wins
Gerrit dates back to when the Dutch XI team had to compete against the Free Foresters, MCC, a single county, good teams from English club cricket, but rarely against Test countries. Even Denmark was sometimes too difficult an opponent.
And he remembers two one-day matches against Pakistan, where the night before their captain Inthikab Alam Khan explained to him in detail that his team ensured that in this kind of cricket the opposing team can score a decent score (Inthikab also bowled himself), but that Pakistan still always wins. The competitive element became hard to muster.
A football career was on the horizon for a while. The trainer of ADO in The Hague, Ernst Happel, also had the Dutch Student XI under him, where Gerrit was keeper. Happel proposed that Gerrit join the ADO players arsenal. As a working student, he was then entitled to a study scheme. It remains his only regret that Gerrit never took it up.
My next item is very personal, but Gerrit is happy to answer it. Many people who know Gerrit less well, notice that he is often quite overwhelmingly present. As a batsman, he has shown indisputably what you can achieve with attacking bravado. But isn't he hiding something from the inside because of his bluff and swagger? Gerrit appears to have asked himself this question often. And yes, a lot has happened in his life that cannot always come to the outside or that he did not want to show. Things like that still affect him. On the other hand, he has a conscious view on leadership, in which he learned a lot from the former trainer of HVV and HCC, Geoff Burch.
A good leader must be able to boost others. You must show superiority. If the captain is uncertain in a sport, a team will irrevocably notice it. So, get rid of your emotions. Don't let yourself be known. Hence sometimes that supposed audacity.
Looking back, for Gerrit, the top priority was that he was able to make so many good friends through cricket. He also has fond and grateful memories of HCC, where, you are not only a member of a club, but above all treated as a member of the family. As a result, the junior becomes gradually more mature.
Gerrit is one of the most active honourary members of the Flamingos; he is rarely missing from special events, tournaments or competitions. And while he asserts advice for younger players should come from their current leaders first, he'll be sure to voice his opinion when asked. Nowadays, meeting old mates is of paramount importance to him, also as their number is unfortunately getting thinner.
Gerrit is quite clear about the future of cricket in the Netherlands, a perspective that worries him. What kind of cricket do we want to play? he wonders. He considers test cricket or the 4-day format out of the question. Although the level of our cricket is in many respects higher than before, our far too short season is troubling. Also, the notorious shortage of grass wickets. And that is a shame, because according to Gerrit, cricket is the shortest way to stardom.
So much for the thoughts of one of the most prominent cricketers in our country, one of the few to have scored more than 10,000 runs. Well played, Gerrit.
C.R.P. Bakker
