"I’m delivering Uber eats to get through" - Paul van Meekeren's old tweet goes viral after match-winning spell vs South Africa in 2023 World Cup
Netherlands fast bowler Paul van Meekeren's old tweet from 2020 about delivering food to survive has gone viral on social media. Replying to a post about the 2020 men's T20 World Cup which was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, van Meekeren had written about the need to "keep smiling" despite the adversity.
He took two crucial wickets - Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen - against South Africa in Dharamshala on Tuesday as the Dutch stunned the Proteas with a 38-run win. This was their first win over a Test-playing nation in ODIs and also South Africa's first defeat to a non-Test-playing nation in the format.
"Should’ve been playing cricket today 😏😢 now I’m delivering Uber eats to get through the winter months!! Funny how things change hahaha keep smiling people😁 ," van Meekeren wrote in November 2020.
Markram has been one of South Africa's best batters in the tournament. van Meekeren clean-bowled him with a lethal cross-seamer in the 11th over for just 1 (3). Jansen is handy with the bat and was looking to take his time batting at 9 (25) when a skiddy delivery from the Dutch pacer sent his stumps flying as well.
"I was never ashamed of the fact that I was going to do it" - Paul van Meekeren in 2020
Due to a paucity of financial support, players in the Netherlands team have often done part-time jobs alongside their cricket. The same goes for many other non-Test-playing nations, including the USA and Oman.
Paul van Meekeren's tweet is from a time when he had lost his contract at Somerset and had a back injury misdiagnosed, which forced him to miss more cricket in the preceding 12 months.
“I had enough savings but they’re savings that I don’t want to touch,” he told The Cricketer at the time. “But I’ve dipped so deep into my reserves now that I had to think about what I was going to do this winter, because there isn’t going to be any cricket. I need some income,” van Meekeren said.
“At the start, I was looking for a job to just cover the simple things like petrol, food, rent, phone bills and those kinds of things,” he said. “But then, I also wanted to be as flexible as possible if any cricket opportunity did come up – whether with the Dutch team, franchise cricket or a chance to train with a county. That’s what happened and I’ve been very open about it to my friends: I was never ashamed of the fact that I was going to do it," he added.
He had also talked about how he wanted to do a few deliveries dressed up like a Santa just to keep a smile on his and others' faces.