In the early months of 1996, he gathered with his Dutch teammates for weekly training sessions in a chilly breeze block multi-sport hall at USV Hercules in Utrecht.

Despite qualifying for their first World Cup, the preparations for the amateur players – schoolteachers, marketing managers, book shop workers, etc. – were rudimentary.

In those days, there was only one indoor net at a club in Utrecht for winter cricket training, Tim told Sport.

“We went to the World Cup and only four of us had hit some balls, like 15 minutes at a time.

It was a talent-only game in 1996. We didn’t train to become better because we had no room for it.”

Tim remembers training camps held in multi-sport facilities in Rotterdam in the noughties and being frustrated with the time it took to set up and take down the nets. After 237 appearances in those distinctive Oranje shirts, De Leede Sr recalls the era with fondness rather than frustration.

The Dutch cricket federation (KNCB) received surplus tracksuits from the Dutch Olympic team that travelled to Sydney three years earlier and gave them to the Dutch players during the 2003 World Cup.

The idea seemed clever at first, but with many earmarked for volleyball players, most cricketers were drowning in them.

While Bas de Leede, in his dark blue, slim-fitting Netherlands training gear with orange trim, looks every inch the modern international cricketer.