For Dutch cricket, 2006 marks the beginning of a whole new era: full ODI status (along with Scotland, Ireland, Canada and Bermuda), the recently-announced World Cricket League, a more demanding schedule in the Intercontinental Cup, and the 2007 World Cup just over the horizon. It’s a bold, even risky, move by the ICC, and it demands a great deal of the nations involved if they are to live up to the challenge.

In the case of The Netherlands, the new framework presents some particular questions.

First and foremost, there is the issue of venues. Only four grounds in the country have grass wickets at present, and only two of those belong to clubs which play in the top division (Hoofdklasse). The older of these is VRA’s beautiful ground in the Amsterdamse Bos, where South Africa played Kenya in the 1999 World Cup and where the imaginatively-organised but weather-ruined Videocon Cup (involving Australia, Pakistan and India) was played – or mostly not played – in 2004.

Extraordinarily, VRA (right) was not given a major game in 2005: the C&G Trophy match against Warwickshire was allocated to the Rotterdam ground of VOC, while the Intercontinental Cup game was scheduled for Utrecht and the European Under-23 tournament, where two adjacent squares were needed, was played at the only venue to boast such facilities, UD in Deventer. It was sheer bad luck that both the C&G game and the Intercontinental Cup encounter were badly affected by the weather, but the Scots left complaining about the Utrecht facilities and it has to be conceded that they had a point.

Still relatively new, the VOC complex will in due course emerge as a truly international-class ground, at least by Dutch standards. The redevelopment programme at VRA, doubling the size of the square and bringing the outfield closer to the pavilion, will substantially improve that ground, although the bye-laws in the Bos will always require that temporary arrangements are made for really big events like that World Cup fixture and the Videocon Cup.

But the set-up at Utrecht makes improvements there difficult to achieve, while the comparative isolation of Deventer from the country’s major centres of cricketing interest limits its usefulness as an international venue. The real problem is the absence of a turf wicket in Den Haag, in many ways the epicentre of Dutch cricket and a natural venue for a game in any ODI series. Until Den Haag acquires an international-standard ground with a grass square there will be a crucial gap in the country’s facilities.

The limitations in facilities are paralleled by weaknesses in playing performance. The Dutch side has revealed its restricted experience in the Intercontinental Cup, where in four games, two of them admittedly badly rain-affected, they have struggled against Scotland and Ireland. Only once, in last season’s rained-off match at Utrecht, have they managed to bowl the opposition out, and Ireland have twice built up big totals against them. The batting has fared a little better, but there is a clear lack of players who are able to build an innings over a long period. The dominance of the one-day game in The Netherlands has made its influence painfully apparent.

The KNCB should, having reached its first major goal, now be thinking about a major restructuring of the domestic game. There are, frankly, too many players of very modest ability playing in the Hoofdklasse, and there is a good case for reducing the competition to eight clubs. This would make it possible to play the two rounds under different conditions, one on the present 50-over basis and the other under some version of the Australian two-day grade system. This would involve 21 playing days as against the current 18, and the programme could be simplified if rained-off matches didn’t have to be replayed.

This would in itself be enough to give players more experience of the longer form of the game, but it could be combined with another, this time really determined, attempt to create a level of regional competition between the Hoofdklasse and the national side. An initial contest between sides based on Rotterdam-Schiedam, Den Haag and Amsterdam would only involve three long weekends, and these matches should wherever possible be played on grass, concurrently with the restructured Hoofdklasse.

There would, of course, be a huge howl from the top clubs, who would be without their leading players for a couple of Hoofdklasse matches. There’s little doubt that the clubs have too much power at present, as is illustrated by the reluctance of the majority to continue the top competition during this year’s ICC Trophy, producing an absurdly long lay-off in mid-season. But if there’s real ambition in Dutch cricket, changes like these are needed to help make the national side truly competitive.

One major problem, even more difficult to resolve than those we’ve considered so far, is the amateur nature of cricket in The Netherlands. The time commitment required of the leading players is considerable, and the programme envisaged for 2006 already involves something like 22 days of international cricket, not counting preparation and rest days. There are already problems of availability for all but the most important matches, making stability in the national side difficult to achieve. There’s little prospect that the fundamental financial issue will be solved in the near future, although the cash bonus which comes from World Cup qualification will at least provide some short-term relief.

And beyond that problem there’s the abysmally low profile of cricket in the Dutch media, which hardly noticed the country’s presence in the last World Cup and seems unlikely to do much better this time. Until a way is found of featuring Dutch cricket on the nation’s television screens it’s likely that the achievements of the national side will continue to go largely unnoticed.