Michael Richard Swart (born 1 October 1982) is a former Australian professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er who played international cricket for the

Netherlands national cricket team The Netherlands national cricket team ( Dutch: Nederlandse cricket team) is the men's team that represents the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is administered by the Royal Dutch Cricket Association. Cricket has been played in the Netherlands ...

between 2011 and 2016. He was born in Australia and also played for

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

in Australian domestic cricket.

Domestic career

From

Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...

, Swart was a member of the WA state under-19 teams in 2000 and 2001 that were captained by Brett Jones and

Shaun Marsh Shaun Edward Marsh (born 9 July 1983) is an Australian cricketer who plays for the Western Australia cricket team in Australian domestic cricket and has represented Australia in all three formats. Nicknamed SOS ("Son of Swampy"), he is a left- ...

, respectively. However, he did not make his senior debut for the Warriors until January 2010, despite years of scoring heavily for his grade-cricket side Joondalup. While he made a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a fo ...

in his first

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

game, a few weeks later he made an impressive 83 in his debut

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Sh ...

match against Tasmania. In May 2010, he was awarded a contract with the Warriors for the 2010–11 season. He scored his maiden

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial ...

in October 2010 against Victoria at the

WACA Ground The WACA (formally the WACA Ground) is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. The stadium's name derives from the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association. The WACA has been referred to as Wester ...

. In February 2011 Swart was dropped from the Warriors squad after being charged with assaulting an opponent,

Billy Godleman Billy Ashley Godleman (born 11 February 1989) is an English first-class cricketer who plays for Derbyshire. He is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm leg-spin bowler who played for Middlesex and Essex before joining Derbyshire in 2013. He ...

, in a grade cricket match between Joondalup and Bayswater-Morley. He was later found guilty by the WACA tribunal and suspended for three matches, with the tribunal rejecting his defence that he was only acting in self-defence. The following week the conviction and suspension was overturned upon appeal. Swart's contract with the Warriors was not renewed for the 2011/2012 season, instead signing with Bootle Cricket Club in England.

International career

In February 2011, it was reported that Swart was to be called up to represent the Netherlands at the

2011 Cricket World Cup The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and for the first time in Bangladesh. India national cricket team, India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the 2011 Cricket ...

following an injury to the team's captain

Peter Borren Peter William Borren (born 21 August 1983) is a former Dutch international cricketer. He was the captain for Netherlands at international level, until he retired in April 2018. Early career He played in the Under 19 World Cup in 2002 when he re ...

. His father was born in the Netherlands, enabling Swart to hold a Dutch passport and being eligible to represent the country. He had previously rejected an offer to join the team at the

Twenty20 World Cup The ICC Men's T20 World Cup (earlier known as ICC World Twenty20) is the international championship of Twenty20. Organised by cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the tournament consists of 16 teams, comprising t ...

, preferring to concentrate on maintaining his position in the Western Warriors team. However, in the following days it appeared that he was unlikely to play at the World Cup, with both Borren's injury being less severe than first thought and a Dutch selector denying that Swart had been approached.Confusion over Swart's Cup bid – Cricket – Sportal Australia
. Sportal.com.au (17 February 2011). Retrieved 2011-02-23. Although he missed the World Cup, Swart went on to play 12

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

s and 26

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

s for the Netherlands between 2011 and 2016, including the

2014 ICC World Twenty20 The 2014 ICC World Twenty20 was the fifth ICC World Twenty20 competition, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament, that took place in Bangladesh from 16 March to 6 April 2014. It was played in three cities — Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. ...

. He was the team vice-captain and even captained in two games when

was unavailable. He was dumped from the national squad at the end of a tour in the UAE in 2016 and told his services were no longer required.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Swart, Michael 1982 births Living people Australian cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in the United Kingdom Australian people of Dutch descent Netherlands One Day International cricketers Netherlands Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers from Perth, Western Australia Western Australia cricketers Dutch cricket captains Dutch cricketers