In the second of two articles considering the next generation of Dutch internationals, Rod Lyall looks at the players vying for a place in the 2008 Under-19 World Cup.

Imagine that you’re seventeen years old, and that you’ve played cricket for your country in various under-age tournaments, with reasonable success.

If you and your team do well enough, you could qualify at next year’s European Championship for the under-19 World Cup the following year. Do well there, and you could break into the squad for the senior World Cup qualifying tournament in 2009, with the possibility that in 2011 you could be playing in the World Cup itself.

That is the exciting trajectory which faces The Netherlands’ best young cricketers as they look forward to next year’s under-19 European tournament, and there’s enough promise in the group to suggest that for some of them the dream might come true.

But there’s a long way still to go. They finished second on their home turf in this year’s under-17 championship, beating Denmark and Scotland but losing to Ireland, and they will need to continue improving if they are to make an impact at under-19 level over the next couple of years.

On the other hand, most of the likely squad have been gaining valuable experience at first-team level for their Dutch clubs, and that will stand them in good stead when they face the international challenge next year.

This season’s success story has been opening batsman Lesley Stokkers (photo above), who played a full Hoofdklasse campaign for Quick Haag, making 465 runs at 27.35 and culminating in a splendid 98 against HBS Den Haag. After Alexei Kervezee he is the next of this generation to make the transition to senior cricket, and between them they should provide a solid core for the under-19 side.

HCC’s Bob Entrop also played a full Hoofdklasse season, while others who gained some experience in the first teams of their respective clubs were wicketkeeper-batsman Stijn Allema (Quick Haag), middle-order batsman Thijs Fischer (who has just moved from Quick to HCC), left-arm seamer Graeme Davey (HCC), and batsman Karel Vieler (VOC).

Two further members of this year’s under-17 squad, wicketkeeper-batsman Steven de Bruin and left-arm spinner Maninder Kamboj, were regular members of ACC’s promotion-winning side in the Eerste Klasse, and the club will be looking to both to make an impression in the Hoofdklasse next year.

And two younger players who might have a chance of breaking into the under-19 side in time for the 2008 World Cup are fifteen-year-olds Tim Gruijters and Vinoo Tewarie. Seamer Gruijters took 21 wickets at 11.71 for Quick Haag’s second team in the Eerste Klasse this season, while leg-spinner Tewarie impressed on his Hoofdklasse debut in VRA’s final match of the campaign, bowling well and picking up three wickets.

As with the senior squad, the main problems are batsmen who get out too frequently to over-ambitious shots and seamers who can not yet bowl in the right areas consistently enough. If real progress could be achieved in these two areas, the Dutch have the makings of a genuinely competitive under-19 side.

The KNCB has invested a great deal of time and money on this cohort of young players, and they have had opportunities to play in South Africa and India over the past eighteen months. But nobody, and least of all director of youth cricket Roland Lefebvre, underestimates the huge gap that exists between youth cricket in the Test nations and that of the leading Associates: the recent experience of a combined Dutch under-19/under-23 side, heavily defeated in three games against England’s under-17s, reinforced that point.

So the message that there is no alternative to hard work and constant practice is one which Lefebvre and his fellow-coaches drum home at every opportunity. After all, the potential rewards are undeniably worth working for!