Dutch coach Peter Cantrell was the bearer of good news and bad news for players in his national squad this week.

The good news was for four, and possibly five, young players who will take part in this winter’s ICC training camp in Pretoria. Certain to go are batsmen Daan van Bunge and Alexei Kervezee, seamer Mark Jonkman, and off-spinner Muhammad Kashif. Left-arm spinner Pieter Seelaar must wait to see whether he can get a place because one of the other participating countries does not fill its quota.

The implication of this announcement goes beyond the opportunity for a period of intensive training and development at one of the best facilities in the world: one of the criteria for inclusion in this year’s camp is that the players are regarded as certainties for inclusion in their country’s World Cup squad.

But three other members of Cantrell’s squad have been told that they are being dropped, effectively ending their hopes of being on the plane to the Caribbean next year.

They are seam bowlers Ernst van Giezen, Sebastiaan Gokke and Jelte Schoonheim. This pruning exercise reduces the number of potential opening bowlers in contention for the World Cup squad to five: Victor Grandia, Jonkman, Darron Reekers, Billy Stelling and Edgar Schiferli. With Schiferli out through injury and a doubtful starter for the winter tour to South Africa, the seam attack remains a serious area of concern.

Cantrell himself received some bad news this week: opener Maurits van Nierop’s ankle injury, sustained when he was playing for the Dutch under-23 side against Denmark in June, has still not recovered, and he is unlikely to play again this season.

With Reekers having picked up another injury during the European Championships in Glasgow and missing last Sunday’s Hoofdklasse match for Quick Haag, the Dutch coach will be hoping that his players come through the final weeks of the season without any further damage.