Full name Esther Else Corder
Born July 28, 1998
Current age 19 years 234 days
Major teams Netherlands Women
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm medium
How did you start playing cricket?
I lived in Australia for seven years and my dad is English, so my sister and I grew up playing cricket. I was 8 when I started at the local cricket club and mostly played with boys. When I got older, I made it into the youth team, then national team and from there on I have been building my skills. My dad played a lot of cricket and there was a huge culture of cricket in England – at Christmas we would have a hit around.
My younger sister has also just made it into the Dutch National Team as a batsman! She plays hockey and is naturally very good at hitting the ball. My sister and I are very close and it’s so nice being able to train together, and that we share the same interests.
How often do you train?
Our season starts in May, as the National team we train twice a week and gym once a week.
How are you feeling about the upcoming Qualifiers?
The Netherlands is hosting the Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifiers from 3 to 14 July 2018. It is huge for an associate nation to host the qualifiers as there isn’t really a culture of cricket in our country. Now that we’re hosting everyone’s friends are excited to come watch, and we’re hoping that this will help raise awareness of the sport. We’ve put in some hard work over the past year, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens!
What are the challenges that associate nations face?
I think the biggest difficulty for associate nations is getting real international experience. The Netherlands only get to play international games in the Qualifiers! We don’t get the opportunity to practice often enough.
The three best players in our team have all had experience abroad- and they did really well because they had opportunities in the past to go to the World Cup, and have played against teams like Bangladesh. I think competing against countries at the top level really does help players develop.
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