Mitch Marsh & Logan van Beek speak ahead of Australia vs Netherlands

Mitch Marsh & Logan van Beek speak ahead of Australia vs Netherlands in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

[Reporter:]

Congratulations on that record-breaking knock and the partnership. So how much did the previous bilateral series help you? You nearly made 100 in that series as well. So how much did that help you for this World Cup campaign, personally speaking, that recent bilateral series in India?

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, it was obviously nice to get a few runs at the back end of that series. And, yeah, came into the tournament feeling pretty confident. Had a bit of a slow start, but it's been really nice to contribute to a couple of wins over the last two games.

[Reporter:]

Mitch, how is Travis Head from your perspective? Do you know if he's available for this game? And what have you seen from him?

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, I think that decision will be made this afternoon/tonight. He looked good, a bit of range hitting last night. He says the hand feels good. So, I'm sure if he's fit, he'll be available for selection in the team.

[Reporter:]

I'm not sure if you saw Steve Smith get hit in the nets last night. But how was he, and what did you make of that?

[Mitch Marsh:]

I didn't. I read your article this morning, actually. So that was the first I heard of it probably go to show how bad it was bit of carry on from Smudge [Steve Smith] as normal. But yeah, for my reports. He's absolutely fine

[Reporter:]

Just on so you mentioned that - Trav, so at some point he's going to come back into the team, right, and you're going to go back down to number three, presumably, you know, how does that kind of change your outlook on things coming off a pretty good knock in our last innings?

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, I mentioned to David Warner, maybe he can bat three, but I got a firm no from him, so that's being sarcastic there guys. But yeah, very happy to go back down to three. I've obviously batted there a lot over the last couple of years, so I feel really comfortable at three. And if and when Heady comes back in, I think that's the best position for me to play for this team.

[Reporter:]

And just wondering about the air quality, Mitch. Like when you were training out there last night, did you kind of notice a bit of a difference? And have you guys discussed any measures you can take to overcome it?

[Mitch Marsh:]

No. I think the only time I'm affected by the air quality is when my golf ball goes up in the air and I can't see it but apart from that absolutely, no stress in mind.

[Reporter:]

Mitch the World Cup is only about halfway through but we have already seen at least three results which would classify as big upsets. So, do you think that the gap between what we call the top teams and the so-called lesser teams is lessening or how do you explain it?

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, teams have got better. I think that's great for world cricket, certainly in tournaments like this that can sometimes be pretty long. And you see a lot of games that are not exactly close or competitive. But we've said it multiple times now in this tournament this year, there's absolutely no easy games. And you go into every game having done all the appropriate homework and hopefully you can come out with a win. So, tomorrow is no different for us. We respect the Netherlands; they're playing some good cricket and that will be a tough challenge.

[Reporter:]

You spoke after that 96 in the ODI series your disappointment about not getting to three figures Can you talk us through? What was sort of running through your head when you did bring up the three figures and the relief maybe that you were feeling that point in time

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, it's not so much relief. There's a fair bit of emotion in it. World Cup's are very special for you to be a part of, and there's no doubt that there's different pressures that come with playing that compared to a bilateral series. So, yeah, I was really excited to be able to make 100 for Australia, to have a partnership with Davey, and most importantly, after our start to the tournament, just contribute to win. So, yeah, it was a great feeling.

[Reporter:]

And just on that knock it was raised on social media that you're wearing the cap number of your brother Sean Marsh. Yeah. Is that a deliberate move and can you talk us through that?

[Mitch Marsh:]

No, I've asked a couple of times to get my number on my cap and they keep sending me Shaun's number. So, everyone here calls me Shaun anyway, so it works out well.

[Reporter:]

First question, In the previous match against Pakistan, Australia was in a very commanding position, 250-something for no loss, and then after the openers were dismissed, 367 was the final score. There was a collapse of sorts. Is this something that the team has addressed after the match?

[Mitch Marsh:]

I think individually everyone would have addressed that. To be honest I thought Pakistan bowled really well and gave us a bit of a blueprint on how to go about it certainly towards the back end of the inning so they're a very good outfit and we were able to get on top of them in the first half of the innings, but they came back strongly, and you expect that from teams like Pakistan. So, we'll address it, and hopefully moving forward, we can have a great last 10 overs and apply some pressure to other teams.

[Reporter:]

And my second question, unfortunately, yesterday, news broke that the former Indian spin great Bishan Singh Bedi is no more. Any words on Bishan?

[Mitch Marsh:]

No words, obviously very sad and thinking of him and his family and everyone involved.

[Reporter:]

Mitch, there were some headlines overnight, which I'm sure you read because you clearly read widely, about Jonny Bairstow sort of re-opening some wounds from the Asher series and Lords and widening it to a few other catches. Is it a talking point in the squad and what's the reaction, your reaction, and the reaction generally?

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, I think at this point it seems like a lifetime ago with how much cricket we've played since and we're really focused on the World Cup. There's obviously always going to be chat when it comes to Australia and England, and things will always come back up over the years. But right now, we're solely focused on tomorrow and the World Cup.

[Reporter:]

Mitch, you've always had opinions on how the rest of Australia perceives you, but you've always been a really popular member of this side I mean David Warner was celebrating your hundred more than his own. What do you think you put it down to like why are you so popular and what does it feel like to be that popular?

[Mitch Marsh:]

I'll see you in the bar tonight. No. Oh, look, I think I don't really know how to answer that. Yeah, I'm very passionate about playing cricket for Australia. I love my teammates, love winning. That's probably as simple as I keep it, I guess.

[Reporter:]

Just on your batting evolution in the last two years, Mitch, as the Australian representative here, I get asked about it all the time, so I thought I'd ask you, so what have you done differently? Have you done anything differently at all? Or is it everything to do with your mindset, and that's the only thing?

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, I mean, I've still worked hard for a long period of time to hopefully keep improving. And there's no doubt that I've had probably more opportunities at the top of the order and more time to bat in the white ball format. Not a whole lot's changed, I've just probably not given up on the fact that I was striving for something and kept working hard through periods of time that were tougher than others. In the last couple of years, I feel as I've been as consistent as I have been, which was something that I was always striving for. I guess all the best players in the world that you look up to, and certainly in our team, they're so consistent. And that's what I was.

[Reporter:]

You guys have already lost a couple of matches. While the Netherlands are riding on high confidence the type that they have been showing this tournament.

You guys will be a bit under of pressure compared to the Netherlands, as a lot will be at stake for you in terms of semi-final race?

[Mitch Marsh:]

I think every game from here on is really important for every team that's in the World Cup. We've seen some teams that have lost a couple. And as I said earlier, there's no easy games in this World Cup. And whoever holds that trophy in a couple of weeks' time will deserving winners, because every game's high pressure. It's a World Cup. You're playing in front of the amazing Indian fans that are so passionate. And it's been a great experience. But yeah, every game there's high pressure and high stakes.

[Reporter:]

Mitchell, Travis Head has joined the team and he's practicing so Can we see Travis Head tomorrow playing in the 11 and if yes, then who will be replaced?

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, it's a good question I'm not sure who he'll replace at this stage, but I presume that if he's fit and he gets through today that he'll play, but that decision will be made tonight.

[Reporter:]

This has been a very long season for the Australian cricket team, right from the tour of India at the beginning of the year and you have been playing high profile series. How difficult is it on body and mentally to play such a long World Cup and then you being pushed back up front in the World Cup. How difficult is it for you to cope with this grind that you have been going through from February? And what does it take when every match, as you said, has become very crucial for you at this point and playing that ruthless brand of cricket of Australia? How difficult is that for you mentally to do that? Since that you have gone through a lot, this team as a bunch has gone through a lot.

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, I think it's been spoken about a lot for a lot of teams. And I feel as though the schedule and the amount of cricket played is the same for every team that's here. India probably play the most cricket out of anyone. And I guess from our point of view and from my point of view, it's leaning on experience of the past. We've got a team full of a lot of experience at the moment, guys who've played 12 months of the year for the last probably six or seven years. So, we're not in unfamiliar territory and the vibe in our team whilst we had a slow start and we were put under pressure at times, The vibe's great. We've played really good cricket the last two games and hopefully that's the case tomorrow. So, there's a big carrot dangling for us in a couple of weeks' time. Our vibe's high. We're playing good cricket now and We're looking forward to tomorrow.

[Reporter:]

Have you had a chat with your father after that 100 the partnership with Warner- your father and David Boon, used to have a lot of partnerships like that. Did you have a chat with him about that partnership in particular?

[Mitch Marsh:]

Yeah, that partnership would have taken four days to get that many. So no, my dad's a man of few words. He was very happy for us. And we always chat after every game, so he was pumped.

[Reporter:]

We have already seen upset by Netherlands beating South Africa. Can we see another upset beating Australia?

[Logan Van Beek:]

Why not? It's, you know, we've come here to reach the semi-finals. That's our goal. It's been pretty clear throughout the whole preparation phase. And the South African win just gave us that extra belief that you know the way they're playing at the moment on our day we can we can still beat a good team.

[Reporter:]

When we talk about Netherlands cricket, and we talk about a lot of amateurs playing the game but with the leagues going around and now that you have shown in two successive World Cups that you can take on the bigger teams, where do you see professionalism coming into Netherlands cricket right now? Do you see yourself as professional cricketers who can actually survive on cricket now?

[Logan Van Beek:]

It's the hot question at the moment, is how do we ride this momentum and actually put structures in place in the Netherlands so that this run that we're having can be sustainable and that we can look at the long term and not let this time just be a flash in the pan. So, there's the attention we're getting through our performances, through the style we're playing. Hopefully, there's more investment into the game from a local point of view, but also international sponsors want to get behind the Netherlands team. And that's all going to kind of have a flow on effect, come into more contracts, better facilities, more resources, more coaching. And I look at how New Zealand were 20 years ago. I was only about 10 years old in New Zealand. But I remember that period, professional cricket actually started 2000. And see where New Zealand are right now, and the way they play and the way they go about it. You know, we've got in the Netherlands just as many players, and I can't see why in the next 5 to 10 years we can start being more consistent on the world stage.

T20 leagues? So, the nature of world cricket at the moment, and I think this is going to happen for most teams, for example, I've played GT 20 this year. I played at Worcester played the qualifiers and I also play in Wellington. So even on a kind of smaller scale I've played in four different leagues and just that experience from all those different leagues playing with different players and learning off them and then bringing it back to the Netherlands side only strengthens the team. So, I hope that there's a number of players from this tournament that they'll be able to play three or four leagues a year. They have a Dutch contract. And that's probably where we're heading.

[Reporter:]

You've been part of the Dutch sides for a few years now so what is it different about this particular side that you have this belief? I don't even know whether you consider your win against South Africa as an upset within your camp but what is it like what is why does it feel different even the way you won games in the qualifiers to get here.

[Logan Van Beek:]

I think it's the consistency of preparation So no matter who we're going up against, we consistently prepare exactly the same every time, whether it be Australia, whether it be Oman, that we go through the same process in terms of preparation. We don't leave out anything in terms of how hard we train or the analyst work that we do or the preparation we do in our recovery, everything. It's all consistent. That stems from Ryan Cook, the way he goes about it. He's very professional, very organized and also, he's got this positive belief. So the feeling of you feeling backed and I think the fact that he's so consistent in his preparation, his hard work that it's he's very believable and you want to follow him and so people coming into this culture quickly buy into how we how we go about it and it's yeah -new guys for example Sybrand Engelbrecht has come freshly into the environment and straight away has just kind of bought into the style of play and his performance the last few matches have shown that if you buy into it, you know, it's this kind of goes from there. And so, yeah.

[Reporter:]

Just on Scotty Edwards, I mean, is he already a little sick and tired about how everybody keeps bringing up his Australian connections, especially in the lead up to this game?

[Logan Van Beek:]

Yeah, no, Scotty's excited for this game. He's obviously probably grown up wanting to play for Australia. He still can play for Australia. What I've seen from Scott over the last few years, especially when he took over the captaincy and the way he plays, I firmly believe he would be a valuable asset to any Big Bash side going this summer. Victorian side, like he's probably not the traditional style Big Bash, like bash cricket, but he just, he gets you with like a million cuts or sweeps, I should say but he finds a way to get the job done and when you bat with him, he lifts your game as well. But no, he's, I can just tell the last few days, He's got that extra little motivation. And it's like me when I play New Zealand or Western. It's the same kind of feeling of, I just want to get one up over these guys.

[Reporter:]

And kind of picking up on that, Logan, Netherlands haven't played Australia in any format, I don't think, since the 2007 World Cup. I'm not sure if that's the same for other teams you've played in this tournament, but does that add something extra too?

[Logan Van Beek:]

Yeah, it's a great question. So, the warm-up game the other day was the first time that I'd played against Australia, first time a lot of the guys have played against Australia and for me growing up in New Zealand and being so close to Australia like I've looked up to the Australian photo right in my face right now at the back here just looking at me and a lot of those guys I grew up watching and I admired a lot of the way that Australians go about their cricket.

In the same pool as Australia so I think that's been and gone. We're very much in the now and what's going to happen in the future. Fingers crossed the way we're playing, we're showing that we deserve to be having more series at home in the Netherlands and teams are wanting to come over to the Netherlands to play as well, so hopefully Australia will be one of those teams that you know on the way to England they can play a series against the Netherlands before they play England and something along those lines will be pretty cool in the future.

[Reporter:]

You just mentioned that the Dutch team wants to make it through the semis. Somehow, if you are not able to make it to the semis, what would you consider a satisfactory campaign and how do you feel, how do you hope it can change Netherlands cricket?

[Logan Van Beek:]

Satisfactory campaign, yeah that's the thing, it's going to be one or two ways, we’re going to make the semis or we're not going to make the semis. I think satisfactory would be the fact that we have stayed consistent. So far, four games we've done that. Stayed consistent in our preparation. I'm just going to repeat it again. But if we can play to our standards every game, and regardless of the outcome, we can walk away and go, look, we did everything we possibly could do in that match to get the outcome we wanted. The beauty about how the pool was kind of playing out and people were losing here and everywhere is that it might not actually take four wins, it might take three wins in a net run rate or whatever the case may be. But no, that will be kind of for future to kind of dictate whether this is satisfactory or not. But for us internally, it's did we, can we look at ourselves in the mirror and say we did everything we possibly could do to give ourselves the best chance in this tournament.

[Reporter:]

[inaudible]

[Logan Van Beek:]

How do I hope that Netherlands? I think satisfactory is, yeah, it's kind of the wrong word like I don't that seems like it just like ho-hum kind of word I think an inspirational kind of tournament we want to we want to inspire that you know cricket is back home in Netherlands. I watched a Dutch sports show this morning and they were talking about cricket and laughing how it's pretty similar to a nine to five job, how long it takes, and they're making a few other jokes. And I hope that another of couple wins, they can almost stop joking about cricket in the Netherlands and they start talking seriously about how this is actually one of our best sports teams in the country. So that's - One to inspire the next generation but also to change the narrative within Netherlands around we're actually one of the better Netherlands sporting outfits.

[Reporter:]

Where do you think there has been a delay in Netherlands entry to Test cricket, considering that they’ve played in the 1996 World Cup and there were teams like Afghanistan and Ireland who were not there anywhere, they've got Test status, but Netherlands are still struggling to get Test status. Also, the fact that the proximity to England, where some of your players used to play county cricket, Luuk van Troost and so many others.

[Logan Van Beek:]

Yeah, I love Test cricket. Test cricket is something that I grew up watching. I still play four-day cricket in New Zealand and in county cricket. I firmly believe it's a great baseline to learn how to bat time, learn how to bowl long spells, but also learn how to play when you're tired. And for me the other day, in that Sri Lanka game, I betted for a couple hours, and then I had to go open the bowling. But I knew that I could do it because I had done it in four-day cricket. So that was the benefits of longer form cricket. I think in terms of for the Netherlands, I think chasing Test status could hamper getting more players involved in the Netherlands. I think the beauty is, for me personally - like if the Netherlands had Test status, then I wouldn't be able to go back and play in New Zealand or Colin Ackerman they can't go play County cricket or anything like that.

So I think the more we can I guess at this stage focus on the T20 and one day cricket and give guys opportunity to play in other leagues and around the world and give people in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh doesn't matter if they've got Dutch passports or if they want to play international cricket to come to the Netherlands do the qualifications like Teja Nidamanuru and Sybrand Engelbrecht have done and play international cricket, and so I think that's more positive in the short term for us? And then if we gain momentum and we've got a pool of players that can compete in Test match ricket in the future, then yeah, we'll definitely push for that.

[Reporter:]

My question for you is, once again, Scott has grown up in Australia, so he most probably got a chance to witness how Australians play their cricket, their cricketing culture from a very close distance and perhaps from an Australian perspective.

Has this knowledge of Scott helped you in any way while training? Has it added any surprise element or something especially in your training against Australia? Has his knowledge as a kid who grew up in Australia, has it helped you in training like his knowledge that he could gather?

[Logan Van Beek:]

Yeah, well I wasn't at training yesterday, so I'm not sure what he did yesterday and he wasn't at training yesterday as well it's obviously quite a short turnaround and we try and focus on the next game. Tonight's training though I was going to talk to him specifically around the batting and kind of what his tactics are against certain bowlers and I think, yeah, he's got to the stage now where he actually hasn't faced or played with a lot of the guys either. So, he's in a similar boat to us where he's watched them on TV a lot. He doesn't quite probably know them personally or, you know, he's only played maybe a little bit of grade cricket against Maxwell, I think.

So, he's probably in a similar boat to us around, yes, he's seen them on TV, and so again the beauty about Scott is that he treats each game exactly the same and he's such a low-key but he's such a humble, hard-working guy that you don't really know what's going to happen. It's hard to explain. Again, I think he leads the fact that it's just another game and that's the way he goes about it and that rubs on rubs off and a lot of us as well. We were going okay you know; this is just another game. Yes, it's the first time we're playing Australia and you know if we can manage to put on a great performance and create a memory for a lifetime then happy days but no, he's pretty cool calm and collective at the moment.

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