The restructuring of the management of Dutch cricket which was agreed in June is one side of a modernisation process which is essential if The Netherlands is to respond to the challenges presented by the ICC’s global strategy for the development of cricket.

But that’s only the background to what happens on the field, and that’s where the really tough decisions have to be made. The experience of the summer suggests that a lot of clear thinking and hard work are going to be necessary if the Dutch are to maintain their current position in the second tier of world cricket, and structural changes are needed here, too.

So here is one possible strategy, a ten-point plan whose aims are to raise the highest level of Dutch domestic cricket and give the leading players of the present and future the experience they will need to survive in the ICC’s Brave New World.

1. Reduce the Hoofdklasse to eight teams

There can be little doubt that, even with a significant sprinkling of foreign-born players to augment the coaches, there is insufficient strength in depth in Dutch cricket to supply ten squads of genuinely top-class cricketers. One only has to study a season’s Hoofdklasse scorecards to realise that most teams have several players who are essentially making up the numbers. An eight-team Hoofdklasse would be more competitive, helping to raise standards all round.

2. Make one of the two rounds two-day matches under Australian-style ‘grade rules'

With only eight teams in the competition there would be room in the programme for half the games to be played over two days (Saturday-Sunday, or two successive Sundays). This would be a first step towards providing Dutch cricketers with the experience of longer forms of cricket that they so obviously lack, and the benefits would not be confined to the few players who take part in four-day internationals. Batting through two sessions and bowling longer spells can only be good for developing players, and the effects would be seen in Dutch performances in one-day cricket as well.

Such a move would probably involve giving up the current system whereby matches abandoned because of the weather have to be replayed: if shared points in such cases can work in English cricket, why not in The Netherlands?

3. Introduce two-day semi-finals and a three-day final

Many players are in favour of adding a finals round to the Hoofdklasse competition, and it would obviously help to keep interest alive right up to the end of the season. With eight teams playing, most would then be involved in a contest either for a place in the top four or avoiding relegation, and a three-day final over the last weekend in August would be a suitable climax to the season.

4. Introduce a three-day regional competition, played on grass pitches

The KNCB has tried unsuccessfully in the past to set up a regional competition, but it has foundered in the face of players’ unwillingness to make themselves available. The compromise solution of an under-age tournament has also been attempted, but without much success. Yet if Dutch cricket is really to advance, the more talented players have to compete with each other more, and the more longer matches they play, the better.

With grounds in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Utrecht (and Deventer as well, for that matter), it would be possible to start such a competition almost immediately. If it were played concurrently with the Hoofdklasse, it would only involve a couple of extra days’ cricket (a Friday or Monday) for those involved. No doubt there would be opposition from the clubs, who dread the loss of top players, but it would only affect a couple of Hoofdklasse rounds for each club, and it would have the added advantage of enabling them to give younger players an opportunity.

5. Employ the Duckworth/Lewis system for the regional competition and the Hoofdklasse

At present, rain-affected Hoofdklasse matches are decided on average run-rate over the whole innings, provided each side faces at least 35 overs. This puts a huge premium on batting second, since you’re then chasing a known target and since the side batting first can suddenly find that a break for rain can leave them with many fewer overs to complete their interrupted innings. On the other hand, the average run-rate rule can, in a closely-fought match, create a lottery around when precisely rain drives the players from the field, as occurred this season in a match between HCC and Voorburg. It’s these problems that the D/L system was created to overcome, and if it’s not exactly perfect it’s still better than any other approach.

The Duckworth/Lewis tables are available in hard-copy form for competitions like the Dutch domestic ones, and it should be possible for umpires, scorers, players and administrators to deal with it. The KNCB would need to establish a system for avoiding clashes over interpretation of the rules, but it would ensure a fairer system, and with 20 overs the minimum for completing a match (as in ODIs), it would reduce the number of abandoned games.

6. Create grass wickets in Den Haag and Schiedam

There are at present only two Hoofdklasse clubs with grass wickets: VRA Amsterdam and VOC Rotterdam. At the very least, a grass square is needed in Den Haag, one of the strongest centres of Dutch cricket, and ideally Schiedam should have one as well. This is, of course, together with the following one, the most expensive of all these proposals, but it is something that ought to have the KNCB’s highest priority. The news that Voorburg are making a serious attempt to develop a grass square is encouraging, but a proper national plan is needed, which could then form the basis for securing the funding what would make such a development possible.

An obvious starting-point would be joint initiatives between Quick Haag and neighbours HBS, and between the Schiedam clubs Excelsior and Hermes-DVS. The partners would then play their home games on alternate Sundays, ensuring maximum use of the grounds. All four clubs currently play on football grounds, with obvious problems of availability and poor condition in the increasingly long overlaps between the two sports’ seasons. Dedicated cricket grounds are the way forward if Dutch cricket is to continue to develop.

7. Fix a date by which all Hoofdklasse matches must be played on grass wickets

Utopian? Perhaps, but if the sharing principle proposed above were to be adopted, this would imply a maximum of six grounds. The target date doesn’t have to be too close, but it should be part of the national plan to ensure that an adequate number of turf squares is put in place over a defined period.

Such an approach is all the more essential because of the siren voices of those advocating that Dutch cricket should not only accept the inevitability of artificial pitches, but that it should adopt artificial outfields as well. Given the situation in The Netherlands, playing recreational cricket on such surfaces might indeed be an answer, but it is an illusion that cricket at the highest level can be played on them.

It would follow from this that promotion to the Hoofdklasse would, after the agreed date, no longer be automatic, but would depend on the promoted side having access to a grass wicket. This would in itself be an incentive for ambitious clubs to set about securing such facilities, and in the medium term would probably create more stability in the Hoofdklasse structure.

8. Arrange regular matches for the full Dutch side against A sides from Test countries

Well as The Netherlands did in their ODIs against Sri Lanka, it was evident that they have some way to go before they will be able to compete effectively with a full-strength Test side, and they were not very impressive in the European Championships in Scotland. More worryingly, the A side was outclassed when it took on A teams from India and Pakistan in the EurAsia Cup tournament in Abu Dhabi. But matches between a full Dutch side and A teams from the Test nations would be much more interesting, and with at least one A team touring England each summer, it ought to be possible to set up such games on a fairly regular basis. Scotland and Ireland seem to be more proactive in this area, and the KNCB needs to respond.

9. Arrange a regular programme of matches for the Dutch A side

The Abu Dhabi expedition, undertaken at short notice, was a mixed blessing, but it did demonstrate the value of such experience. Finance is no doubt a constraint on the international programme at all levels, but A-side fixtures against, for example, English minor counties and the A teams of other Associates (Scotland A and Ireland A recently played a two-day game at the same time as the countries’ Intercontinental Cup fixture) would give younger Dutch players more international experience in a context in which they could develop their skills.

10. Ensure that as many as possible of the games played by the full and A sides are over two or three days

The ICC’s overall global development strategy requires the leading Associates to improve in two directions at once: to become competitive in ODIs, and to perform in first-class, four-day cricket. This seems contradictory, but there’s no doubt that for the Test countries the more intensive skills of one-day cricket are largely founded on the longer form of the game. How far the Associates will ever be able to emulate this is doubtful, but too much concentration on the one-day format will certainly limit players’ long-term development.

There are, obviously, considerable capital and recurrent costs involved in several of these measures, but others wouldn’t cost anything at all. No doubt there would be opposition from the clubs to some of the more radical proposals, but it is the KNCB’s task to take Dutch cricket forward, and the alternative to development along these – or at any rate, comparable – lines is stagnation and ultimate failure. And that’s in nobody’s interest!