Having appeared in minor matches for the Netherlands since 1972, Lubbers came to England in 1978 and played once for the Lancashire second XI and seven times for Derbyshire seconds, but failed to break through to the first team and never played first-class cricket, hindered by the fact that Dutch cricketers were back then considered overseas players, which was turned around a couple of years later.

His first internationals were in the 1979 ICC Trophy, in which he appeared three times without any particular success. He also did little in the 1982 competition, but in the 1986 tournament he took 12 wickets at 19.75 and scored a fifty against Canada.

He became captain of the Dutch team in 1988, playing in the side that hosted an England XI the following year and taking the wickets of John Stephenson and Alec Stewart in a shock three-run victory at Amstelveen in the first of the two matches. A reasonable 1990 ICC Trophy followed, and he led two tours of England in 1991 and 1992, playing a total of eight minor games against county opposition, although seven were lost and one ruined by rain.

A good 1994 ICC Trophy (310 runs at 44.28, 10 wickets at 22.00) saw Lubbers make three half-centuries, including 81 in the third-place play-off victory over Bermud