There’s still been no definite announcement by the KNCB confirming the appointment of Peter Drinnen as national coach, although it’s a month since the story broke.

The legal technicalities have evidently delayed proceedings, but well-informed sources suggest that the announcement may now be imminent. The new coach was supposed to be in post by 1 January, and with Intercontinental Cup matches in Namibia and the UAE now just three months away the situation is on the verge of becoming critical.

Drinnen’s appointment, assuming that it is confirmed, will be something of a coup for the KNCB, but the mismanagement of the appointment process has been extremely unfortunate, and it’s not hard to see why Paul Jan Bakker is left feeling disgruntled. Nor is it surprising that chairman Marc Asselbergs was moved to express his regret at December’s general meeting of the KNCB.

The mess which the appointing process has been illustrates the fragility of the organisational structures which often exist in Associate countries with small memberships and a heavy reliance on overstretched volunteers.

The roots of the problem go back to the immediate aftermath of Peter Cantrell’s resignation shortly after the World Cup. The initial decision to buy time by naming Bakker as interim coach for the duration of the summer was a good one, but it should have been followed up by making an immediate start on the search for a permanent solution.

Instead, things were allowed to drift throughout the season, and it was only a couple of days before the expiry of Bakker’s contract on 31 August that the Board was in a position to advertise.

Meanwhile, the coach himself had built a healthy working relationship with the players, and results on the field had been reasonably good. But it seemed that nobody from the Board had thought to discuss the future with Bakker himself, and there were reports at the time of his dissatisfaction at the lack of communication.

He was, nevertheless, one of the 35 or so applicants for the permanent job, and once again it appeared that the Board had got a grip on the situation with the naming of a balanced Appointment Committee under the chairmanship of Board member Bart Lubbers. The presence of figures like current captain Jeroen Smits, director of youth cricket Roland Lefebvre and ex-international Tim de Leede on the committee would surely guarantee that the procedure would be well managed.

But at some point it all seems to have turned pear-shaped.

There are persistent reports that the committee was not involved in the drawing up of a first short list, and it does not seem to have met on a regular basis.

Bakker himself, now back in Switzerland where he runs a ski school, remains very unhappy about the way he has been treated.

‘I heard nothing from the KNCB from 16 September until the beginning of December,’ he says. ‘The committee never approached me, I was never interviewed, and I have not received a letter telling me that my application was unsuccessful. Nothing.’

In the tiny world of Dutch cricket, he was naturally been able to stay abreast of developments, and that has only made him more critical of the way the appointment has been handled.

He claims that the job description was changed after applications had closed, adding to the new coach’s responsibilities the writing of a report on the development of youth cricket, and that the committee had not seen the letter of intent which was sent to Drinnen.

‘I’ve got the greatest respect for Peter Drinnen as a coach,’ Bakker says, ‘and I wish him well in the job. But I believe that I should have been given a chance to lay out my ideas to the committee, such as greater involvement of club coaches in the national squad’s preparations, and the development of academies.’

Bakker acknowledges that his lack of the formal qualifications which the advertisement called for – the job description specified Level 3 or above, while he has only a Level 1 certificate – was a weakness in his application.

‘But I do not believe that it should have been an insurmountable problem,’ he protests, ‘and I had worked out a temporary solution involving support from [former Derbyshire coach] David Houghton while I got the necessary qualifications.

‘At the very least, I should have been allowed to put forward my proposals.’

Appointment committees have an obligation to conduct their procedures not only to find the best candidate, but also to ensure that unsuccessful applicants, however disappointed they may be, are left with the belief that they have been properly considered and correctly treated. There can be little doubt that this has not been achieved in this instance.

Assuming that Peter Drinnen’s appointment finally gets the green light, everyone who cares about Dutch cricket will join Bakker in wishing him success.

But they will also be hoping that the KNCB Board will learn hard lessons from the experience, and ensure that its management of the sport is more effective in future.