Fist bump or Handshake?
That was how my first interaction with Aryan Dutt, the Netherlands off-spinner, kicked off. In the end, after a couple of misses, the handshake won.
Standing 6 feet tall, Aryan has Indian roots; his ancestors are from Punjab. Despite growing up in a Punjabi household, he isn’t much into Bollywood films or music. Surprisingly, he loves the blockbuster 3 Idiots, starring Aamir Khan, which grossed over 200 crore INR as first Indian movie
One famous dialogue from the movie goes: “Success ke peeche mat bhago, kaabil bano, kamyabi jhak maarke peeche aayegi” (Don’t chase success. Strive to become capable, and success will come chasing after you).
Much like Rancho’s philosophy, 22-year-old Aryan is carving his own path toward his ultimate dream of playing Test cricket. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Times of Bangladesh’s Jubayer Tanin at SICS main ground, he shared his cricketing journey and why he chose off-spin.
Enjoying being here?
Yes, so far it’s been pretty good. We came here around I think tuesday, since then we’ve been training ourselves. So its been pretty good.
Your name has an Indian Touch. Your ancestors are from Punjab as far as i know. Can you please walk me through that journey…
I born in Netherlands, But my family is from Punjab. I think they moved to the Netherlands about 40 years ago. My whole family is now in the Netherlands.
The Dutch are really fond of Football. The great Johan Cruyff, Marco Van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp had a great impact on world football too. In a football dominant country how did you end up being a cricketer? What’s your story?
Yeah, football is the top sport in the Netherlands. At first, I was also playing football, but in 2011, after MS Dhoni hit that six in the World Cup final and India won back then, everything changed. That six had a great impact on me & that was the moment I switched from playing football to playing cricket.
Why did you choose off spin? Growing up in the Netherlands, where spin bowling ain’t that common as pace, how did you get into this?
I was actually doing fast bowling initially. But one injury changed everything. I think it was in pre-covid like 2018, I fractured my shoulder. So from then I had to quit pace bowling. To survive I picked the ball as off spinner
Did you grow up having someone as your idol? Do you follow anyone specific?
Idol..I think necessarily you don’t have to have an Idol. But I watch quite a bit of players like Ashwin, Nathan Lyon and Harbhajan Singh.
As white ball cricket is evolving day by day…it’s becoming more tough for bowlers to perform. Are you currently working on adding more variations like the carrom ball, doosra…
Not really now.
You’re known for your discipline and accuracy. What’s your strength actually?
You will see probably…(laughs).
Where do you see yourself in next five years?
That’s quite a sort of question. Obviously we got a World Cup around the corner in 2026. For me, actually my main focus is now on the series. From here on playing the world cup and personally I’m not really thinking about like five 5 years down…
In the last odi world cup you took two wickets against NZ. I was watching a video last night where your father was cheering, clapping from the stand, and you also waved your hand back at him. How does it feel to have someone back in the stand from family?
It was very, very special. Since my junior-level cricket days, they have supported me till today. I didn’t have to fight for that. My family was always like, ‘we’re coming over there,’ and they’ve always backed me. It means so much. They were always right there in front, supporting me.
As you are Punjabi and you have an Indian root. Are you into Bollywood films or Music?
I’m not really into movies. I probably think my favourite movie would’ve been ‘3 Idiots’. I think that is my favourite one.
What’s your ultimate dream of Dutch Cricket?
The dream is to play Test cricket for the country, that’s obviously a big dream. But we don’t have a first class cricket structure. Maybe someday…
