A year ago today I published a ten-point plan for the development of Dutch cricket. I think it’s time to look again at that programme, to see whether the KNCB’s new board took it seriously, and whether the ideas it was based on are still relevant – if they ever were.

Of my ten points, two were implemented in this season’s Hoofdklasse. (I take no personal credit for this: the initiative came from the clubs, and I just happened to have shared the mood.) And in both cases, the introduction of the Duckworth/Lewis system and of play-offs, we can say that they have been an unequivocal success.

There were, certainly, a few minor crises with D/L, but probably fewer than might have been anticipated; and there can be no doubt that the contest for semi-final places made the second half of the season a lot more exciting than it would otherwise have been.

Perhaps, then, these successes will encourage the board, and the clubs, to look more kindly at some of the other changes which I am convinced are necessary if the level of Dutch cricket is to improve.

First, and most important, the number of clubs in the Hoofdklasse must be reduced. The case for this is, in my view, even more overwhelming than it was a year ago.

This season’s statistics could scarcely support the point more starkly: out of ten teams, only 75 players were able to manage a Hoofdklasse batting average of 10.00 or better. Adding a handful of specialist bowlers and a keeper to the list gets us to 85 or so, among ten teams. Setting the standard a little higher, at 15.00, gives a pool of 60, perhaps 70 if we add in a few players who turned out only occasionally – and that includes ten or eleven overseas coaches!

Allowing for injuries, unavailabilities and so on, a Hoofdklasse club needs at least 14 players in the course of a season. It follows that around half of those who took part in this year’s competition were unable to perform convincingly at that level. Is that healthy for Dutch cricket?

Of course, there must be room for younger players to get experience, but an eight-team competition would still need around 110 participants, some 70 or so of whom would be regulars. That seems more consistent with the pool of available talent.

It is true that reducing the number of Hoofdklasse sides would require some clubs to put the good of Dutch cricket ahead of their own self-interest. Maybe that means it won’t happen, although the competition was reduced from twelve teams to ten in 1998, so it is clearly possible.

It is also true that a consequence might be the further concentration of the top level in the traditional centres of Rotterdam-Schiedam, Den Haag and Amsterdam, making it more difficult for teams from Utrecht, Haarlem or elsewhere to reach the top. But then, if they’re not good enough, why should they?

One of the other proposals of a year ago, for the development of turf pitches in Den Haag and Schiedam, is also making some progress, thanks to the initiative and commitment of Voorburg and Excelsior ’20, although there is little sign yet of a co-ordinated strategy on the part of the KNCB, and certainly no indication that moving towards an all-turf Hoofdklasse is seen as feasible or desirable.
And in other respects, my ideas appear to have fallen on barren ground.

Underlying much of what I wrote a year ago were two fundamental convictions: that good Dutch players need tougher competition and, above all, more experience of the longer, multi-day form of the game. I remain convinced on both points.

As far as I am aware, no move has been made towards creating a regional competition, which would ensure that good young players were forced to test themselves against more demanding opposition than they currently encounter on a typical Sunday, and would be encouraged to learn how to build an innings which lasts for more than 25 overs, or bowl longer spells. Nor has there been any serious discussion of the introduction of two-day cricket in the Hoofdklasse.

This season’s second experiment with a European tournament of two-day matches (at under 17 level this time) again illustrated how little idea young Dutch cricketers have of how to approach such a game, and while a few of the senior team, notably Tom de Grooth, Peter Borren and Mudassar Bukhari, showed that they were able to cope with the demands of the four-day Intercontinental Cup, when what was virtually a Dutch A team travelled to Scotland its heavy defeat exposed just how big the gap is between the Hoofdklasse and international cricket of this kind.

Discussions should already be taking place about the future structure of the upper levels of the domestic game, but the current absence of an international strategy is even more disturbing.

Aided by participation in the Friends Provident Trophy, but also because of their own initiative, Ireland and Scotland are moving steadily ahead, building up a body of players with a solid background of international and first-class equivalent experience. Scotland A take part in the English county Second XI championship, and both Scotland and Ireland have been more successful than the Dutch in securing ODIs against full Test countries.

It is now only just over eighteen months to the 2009 World Cup Qualifying Tournament, and there are virtually no fixtures, apart from Intercontinental Cup matches and a few attached ODIs, for the Dutch national side during that period. There certainly appear to be none directed towards testing and extending the future national squad’s experience against superior opposition.

Of course it’s not true that nothing has been achieved: the recently-announced agreement between the KNCB and Warwickshire is an encouraging development; an A side played three one-day matches in Guernsey in May; and a strong combined squad is set to visit India for two weeks at the end of September. BUT the latter are both initiatives which have been dependent on external funding, and they were not actively sought by the KNCB.

The Indian trip, moreover, involves a series of Twenty20 matches as well as a couple of one-day games. This itinerary may help with fielding skills, and perhaps with the bowling of line and length, but Dutch batsmen emphatically do not need more experience in the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am techniques of the Twenty20 game. They need to learn how to build an innings.

There is no doubt that the KNCB’s options are limited by its parlous financial situation, itself the result of chronic underfunding by the ICC of its leading, non-Asian Associates. And there’s a vicious circle involved as well: potential sponsors need attractive fixtures, while it’s impossible to set up those fixtures unless the funding is available.

Somehow or other, though, the programme of the national side, and particularly of the A squad, is going to have to be beefed up if The Netherlands are not to find themselves sliding down the international rankings. And it’s going to have to be done soon!