Victorian fast bowler Dirk Nannes was taken by complete surprise when informed of his selection in Australia's Twenty20 squad for matches against England later this month.
Despite playing for Holland at the ICC World Twenty20, Nannes is permitted to represent Australia because the Netherlands is an associate member of the ICC and does not have full membership rights.
However, once he plays for Australia he will not be allowed to represent the Netherlands again.
Nannes admitted that he thought he had done something wrong when he answered a call from Cricket Australia's general manager of operations Michael Brown.
"I was sitting at home and the phone rang and it was Michael Brown and he normally calls either if you're selected or you've done something wrong and I was scratching my brain to work out what I'd done wrong because I had no idea there were even Twenty20s in England, I hadn't even looked. Complete surprise!" Nannes said on Tuesday.
"It hasn't sunk in for me but my wife was jumping up and down."
The 33-year-old, who has been a standout performer for Victoria in the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash tournaments, thought he would never get the chance to represent Australia after he was overlooked for the ICC World Twenty20 squad.
"Bizarre the way the world turns isn't it? At the time I certainly didn't think I'd get a go," he said.
"I thought so (missed his chance) but at the time I didn't really know there was another Twenty20 World Cup coming up next year again."
"It's just bizarre, certainly when you're growing up as a kid you think about it but cricket's been a bit of a world wind for me, starting so late and it's kind of crept along and crept along and one day I'm playing for Victoria which I thought was amazing the next day I got the IPL gig and then I'm playing in the World Cup for Holland and then this, it's all a bit bizarre and it's probably going to be in 10 years when I sit down and go 'geez I've done some pretty good things'."
Playing against England will hold no fears for Nannes, having helped Holland to an historic final-ball victory over the Poms at Lord's in June.
He didn't take a wicket in that match, but he did strike once against Pakistan in his only other international match for Holland and he believes that playing for the Netherlands certainly helped his career.
"It's a super plus for me that I've done that, who knows whether I would have been selected if I didn't play for them … I had a great experience there and it's done me a world of good," he said.
"It was good fun, and it was certainly unique because everyone there, they're all amateurs … I was playing with a Burger King manager and a debt collector and an insurance salesman and they were just having fun playing cricket."
"That moment of winning the game against England at Lord's was probably the best sporting moment I've had and I'll never forget that."
As far as the future goes, Nannes isn't thinking about a Test call up any time soon, he is just hopeful of performing well enough for Australia to be considered for selection in the future, in particular next year's ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.
"I've never really thought too much about my cricket in that respect going forward what I'm going to do. It's a bit of a cliche but I take it as it comes … I'd like to think I'm not just going to be selected for a couple of games and hopefully I do well and get selected going forward," he said.