When Corey Rutgers first appeared as the media manager of the touring Dutch team in Sylhet, he just didn’t look like your usual media manager kind of guy.

He was involved in training sessions, tossing balls in the nets, sharing tactical insights. 

“A few weeks ago, the KNCB and Ryan Cook approached me. I’ve known the guys for a few years. I’ve lived in the Netherlands for many years and they asked me to come on as media manager, specifically because of the Bangladesh press,” he explained when asked about his actual role with the Dutch team.

“It’s more about guiding them because it’s a very young group. You don’t want to throw inexperienced players straight into press conferences. Having worked as a commentator in Europe, I had that background in media. They asked me to come as a media manager, but since I’m also a coach, it was handy. On hot training days, I could throw balls and help out.”

At press conferences, he wasn’t the silent background figure either; he leaned in with the instincts of a coach, guiding the young squad through tricky questions.

And then, in a casual conversation with journalists, he dropped a line that told you everything about who he really was.

“Noah Croes,” he said matter-of-factly, “is a future Dutch captain.”

It wasn’t just small talk. It was the kind of conviction that comes from someone who has lived in the dugout, studied the game, and knows players well enough to see beyond the present.

You could tell straight away — this wasn’t your average media guy. At just 36, Rutgers has become European cricket’s ultimate journeyman, a jack of all trades and perhaps the sport’s own Swiss Army Knife.

A hybrid coach-cricketer-commentator
Born in Australia, Rutgers knew early on he wasn’t in the “top one percent” destined for professional stardom back home. Instead, he carved out his own way - playing in the Dutch leagues, coaching Belgium, working with the Netherlands, guiding the Falcon Hunters to a Qatar T10 title, stepping into the Pakistan Super League with Islamabad United, and now leading Spain to a 15-match unbeaten streak - with the significant influence of his mother.

“I played three seasons in England when I was 21 or 22. Then I took a few years off, went back to work, and at 25 moved to the Netherlands. That’s when I decided to push for a coaching career because in the T20 world, there weren’t many young coaches. With support from my mum and family, I moved over and it just grew from there, especially with the influence of Ryan Campbell, the previous coach.”

If there’s a cricket gig somewhere in Europe, chances are Rutgers has had his fingerprints on it. What makes him stand out, though, isn’t just the number of hats he wears — it’s how he wears them.

As a coach, he’s never been the distant, clipboard figure. He trains like a teammate, sweats like a player, and uses that relatability as a weapon.

“The younger guys often saw me more like a fellow cricketer than a coach,” he says. “Some people are confident and some are not, so it’s about keeping an arm around their shoulder and helping them as much as possible.”

It’s a philosophy that has carried him from Belgium’s dugout to Spain’s resurgence. And Spain, he believes, is on the brink of something special.

“I think Spain is following the trajectory of Italy. What Italy have done, Spain is on that path. They’ve got turf wickets and it’s growing. Spanish kids are naturally active. They’re good at football, they’re good at sport — and now they’re taking cricket seriously.”

Italy have already qualified for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Rutgers is convinced Spain will be next.

He also works as a commentator for the European Cricket Network, the hub of bizarre yet entertaining cricket videos. And you've probably seen him in a viral video where a commentator in shorts and a blazer threw off his headset, leapt over the boundary line, and pulled off a blinder of a catch before celebrating wildly.

Lessons from the PSL

But it isn’t just Europe that shaped him. Rutgers also got a rare taste of the sport’s biggest stage when he joined Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League. Still a young coach then, he found himself under the late Dean Jones and later Misbah-ul-Haq, thrown into a high-pressure world where scrutiny was intense and standards were uncompromising.

“I owe Dean Jones a lot. He gave me an opportunity and I learnt so much there,” Rutgers reflects.

“The PSL was fun but also intense — passionate fans, loud media, high standards. That experience gave me the confidence to bring something different back to Europe.”

If the PSL showed him what a fully professional ecosystem looks like, Europe taught him the opposite: how to build one almost from scratch.

Why Europe still falters in cricket

Rutgers doesn’t sugar-coat things. Europe remains far behind the cricketing heavyweights. According to Rutgers, the issues are structural: too few turf wickets, too little investment, too much reliance on volunteers rather than systems.

“Some European countries are miles ahead, some are just starting,” he explains. “A lot of them are only now beginning women’s cricket. That gap is huge.”

“Even in the Netherlands, you don’t see cricket on TV or radio. It’s still a very small sport. So when you don’t see it as a young boy or girl, it’s hard to know the sport. It’s growing, but it will take a couple of generations to really see players coming through.”

There are only about 5,000 to 6,000 active cricketers across Europe. That number tells its own story. One weekend, you see Italy qualifying for a World Cup; the next, a viral blooper reel goes around of a misfield in a European league. Behind the comedy, though, Rutgers insists, there’s real progress.

“You’re not going to see the prettiest cricket,” he says. “But it’s a mix of comedy and professionals — and it just works.”

"It's just an exciting time. I think that with the future of where it's growing, it's just you can see the younger kids and you can see players at this level as well growing and more professional, more contracts, more things. So it's a great time to be a part of it."

Journeyman usually implies someone drifting. For Corey Rutgers, it means someone building. 

His career is less about chasing titles for himself and more about helping nations stitch together belief, structure, and ambition.

Rutgers embodies what European cricket is becoming: underestimated but relentless, mocked online yet quietly on the rise. His influence isn’t always visible in the headlines, but it’s in the players who trust him, the federations who call on him, and every turf wicket laid down in a football-mad country.

"I'll be an old guy soon and it'll be nice to look back and say 'I helped a player', that's all you ever want to do you know. So at the moment, I don't know if it's playing a part through commentary, coaching, media, whatever, but I'm just here to help and enjoy myself." 

From the outside, he might look like just another “media guy.” But look closer, and you’ll see the blueprint of European cricket’s future running through him.

He’s the journeyman, the jack of all trades, the quiet engine of a noisy revolution.