Among the 23 players in Peter Cantrell’s initial squad there are, of course, a number of automatic choices, at least at this stage.

Barring injury, presumably, skipper and vice-captain Luuk van Troost and Jeroen Smits (right), together with Bas Zuiderent, Ryan ten Doeschate and Daan van Bunge will be on the plane to Nairobi in March. And it’s reasonable to suppose that the other members of what we might call the five-strong ‘Old Brigade’ – Tim de Leede, Darron Reekers and Billy Stelling – will be there with them.

That assumption, however, leads to the first problem. If the major long-term objective is the 2009 qualification series for the following World Cup, for how long can the core of the side comprise five players in their mid- to late thirties?

If all five senior players turn out in the opening World Cup match against South Africa in St Kitts on 16 March 2007 they will have an average age of 36 years 190 days, and the oldest of them, Tim de Leede, will be just past his 39th birthday. So you have to ask whether it’s a good bet that all five will be in that team, and if not, at what point will Cantrell have to start picking their replacements?

In van Bunge, Zuiderent and ten Doeschate the Dutch have the core of a reasonably strong batting line-up, but the question is who will make up the rest of the top six? De Leede, obviously, if he plays, and it’s likely that Tom de Grooth, the only Dutch participant in the ICC’s Winter Training Camp, will have the inside running for one of the openers’ slots.

Zuiderent opened with spectacular success in this year’s ICC Trophy, making 474 runs with three centuries and winning the Player of the Tournament award, and although de Grooth had only one good performance in Ireland, these two are probably the obvious opening pair in one-day games.

In Intercontinental Cup matches Maurits van Nierop has mostly been de Grooth’s opening partner, with Zuiderent batting at three or four, and this is probably a pattern worth retaining, with van Nierop also providing cover for one-day matches.

This leaves one specialist batting place, which has been held by Darron Reekers in recent matches. But he has had only one half-century in his last twelve one-day innings, and Eric Szwarczynski and Alexei Kervezee, who made their debut in the Intercontinental Cup this season, undoubtedly have a chance to stake a claim for the remaining place in the top six.

The greatest competition will clearly be among the seamers, where the initial squad has six contenders, not counting the experienced all-rounders van Troost, Reekers and Stelling. Of these six, Edgar Schiferli and Sebastiaan Gokke have been regulars in the Dutch side, Ernst van Giezen (right) and Victor Grandia have had a couple of chances, and Mark Jonkman and Jelte Schoonheim are newcomers.

If Reekers and Stelling both play, then there’s only really room for one of the six, assuming that there’ll normally be a specialist spinner in the side. Schiferli has had most success in the past, and given his aggressive batting he probably starts out favourite. But Cantrell will want to give his younger bowlers a chance as well, and that might mean using either Reekers or Stelling, but not both.

The big question is which of the challengers can combine the necessary control of line and length with the ability to bowl genuine wicket-taking balls. Given the tendency of the Dutch attack to leak runs against quality batting in the past, this will be a key issue in the squad’s preparations.

As vice-captain, Jeroen Smits is currently the natural first choice keeper, but both Adse Buurman and Jeroen Westermann, at 23 and 20 respectively, are extremely promising prospects, and their batting talents might suggest there’s a case for playing one or other of them in ODIs, at least as an experiment.

Among the spinners, Adeel Raja has been around longest and has just had his most successful Hoofdklasse season with the ball, but left-armer Pieter Seelaar has made a big impression over the past twelve months, while Kashif Hussain had an excellent season for VOC in 2005.

All in all, the prospects are fascinating, and coach Cantrell faces some agonising choices as he puts together the side that will travel to Kenya in March.