Old Dutch hand Matthew Mott chasing success against Orange to avoid being red-faced (2024)

Matthew Mott, England's coach, will hope to extend the streak on Wednesday in Pune. His adopted side face Netherlands with Champions Trophy qualification on the line and Mott's position under scrutiny: he is 18 months into a four-year contract, but a seventh defeat in eight games would put him under real pressure.

Mott is as Australian as they come: he grew up on the Gold Coast and made more than 3,500 runs across a decade-long Sheffield Shield career for Queensland and Victoria. Yet he also played professionally for a third team: Netherlands, who he represented for two List A games as an overseas player.

Mott enjoyed it enough that he recommended a Gold Coast team-mate named Brett Crichton to Voorburg CC for the following summer. "It meant we had a free overseas player for a year," recalled Tim de Leede, who represented Netherlands at three different World Cups and whose son, Bas, will feature on Wednesday. "We used to be a very small club, so we were very, very happy."

De Leede, who played alongside Mott in both games, believes that his coaching aspirations may have started that summer. "As an overseas player in the Netherlands, you have to start coaching at your club - seniors and kids. Maybe it started then and he liked it?"

Mott referenced his time in the Netherlands during his first interaction with the media in the England job last summer. "I did play cricket many years ago," he said, looking out over the VRA ground in Amstelveen. "Looking at this ground, it's come on leaps and bounds."

It was an idyllic way for Mott to start with England: a three-match series in the baking sunshine, with thousands of travelling supporters drinking Amstelveen dry. They racked up a world-record total of 498 in the first ODI and won the series 3-0 while hardly breaking a sweat.

Jos Buttler made 162 in the first game - 56 runs more than he has managed across seven innings at this World Cup - and took over from Eoin Morgan as captain straight after that tour. His partnership with Mott brought immediate success in the form of last year's T20 World Cup in Australia.

He has found himself under growing pressure as this World Cup has worn on, not helped by Morgan's suggestion that there is "something else going on" than simply players being out of form collectively. Mott pushed back against those comments and while some react better to defeats than others, there has not been any obvious rift in the squad.

Instead, the sense is that England are a team bereft of confidence, without the relevant experience and muscle memory of recent ODI success that helped them get through the setbacks they encountered on home soil four years ago. Mott's task is to revitalise a group that has played together so often, but will never again.

Rob Key, England's managing director of men's cricket, will return to India this week and will rejoin the team in Kolkata ahead of Saturday's fixture against Pakistan. Key holds Mott's future in his hands but was also ultimately responsible for appointing him; sacking him so early into his tenure would not reflect well on his judgement.

There is a simple route for England to quieten talk about Mott's position: to win on Wednesday, and win well. If Mott's brief time in Dutch orange was a success, failure in Pune would leave him red-faced.