The idea of a Club Charter is one which is well established in a variety of sports, including cricket, and it has been successfully adopted by Cricket Scotland, which introduced its TOP Club scheme in 2005.

While the Scottish programme is very strongly focused on youth development, there are good reasons for Top Cricket Nederland to take a wider approach, and to use the Charter as a way of identifying and encouraging best practice across the whole range of club activities.

What does make sense is to construct a graded system, so that clubs can start by getting the basics right and then move on to more ambitious or innovative programmes.

That said, an important element in any KNCB club charter scheme must necessarily be youth development and coaching, since increasing the number of boys and girls playing cricket is both an urgent necessity and something which can ultimately only be achieved by a significant effort by the clubs.

It’s obvious that fielding a specified number of youth teams should be a fundamental requirement for being granted a charter, but the KNCB proposal rightly goes further than this, identifying the organisation of coaching, the number of club members with coaching qualifications, involvement in exchange programmes, recruitment of new players through partnerships with schools, and education programmes in the Spirit of the Game as areas which can be assessed, measured and included among the Charter criteria.

The physical facilities are no less important, of course, and a charter scheme would need to take account of the number and quality of the grounds and pitches, changing rooms, sightscreens, scoreboards, practice facilities, and all the other peripherals which contribute to the level of the cricket played and the enjoyment of players, officials and spectators.

And more officials, especially umpires but also qualified scorers, are desperately needed: there’s little point in setting up a ‘top cricket’ competition if KNCB umpires cannot be appointed for all matches, and that implies a significant increase in the number of competent umpires, and therefore an appropriate organisational structure, more willing bodies, and increased training.

Above all, what a charter system can do is encourage and reward ambition among the clubs, ambition not only to achieve short-term success on the field, but to underpin that success with intelligent, realistic planning and the organisation of well-grounded programmes for the development of the sport.

Encouragingly, the current KNCB board appears to be aware that these goals have to be achieved through a partnership between the national body and its member clubs, with the KNCB setting up frameworks, setting national goals, and providing training, support materials and encouragement for the efforts of the volunteers at club level upon whom the whole enterprise will ultimately depend.

Some clubs will be quick to respond to all this, and others will be much more reluctant. The Scottish experience was that newer clubs were among the first to get involved, while some of the longer-established, traditionally dominant ones held back.

Dutch cricket cannot afford for that to happen here. And in the end, it’s essential that the scheme has teeth.

TCN spokesman Derick Maarleveld hinted during the presentation meeting that being a charter club might be a prerequisite for participation in the proposed Champions and Premier leagues, and Cricket Scotland already has such a requirement for its National League.

A graded scheme permits appropriate levels to be set for different levels of activity (international venue, participation in the elite competitions, the other TCN divisions, the RCN competition, and social cricket).

But of course, there must be rewards as well. The right to use the KNCB charter logo should become a proud symbol, and a valuable asset in recruiting, pursuing sponsorship and the marketing of a club.

Perhaps, in due course, KNCB finances will permit Charter clubs to benefit directly in a material way. As Maarleveld proclaimed: ‘If you don’t dream, it won’t happen!’