The Netherlands’ cricket team will meet Zimbabwe, USA, Nepal and the West Indies in their efforts to qualify for the 50-over cricket World Cup in India at the end of 2023.

The games take place in Zimbabwe in June and, captain Scott Edwards said, he is confident the squad “can play a brand of cricket that will be successful in these conditions.” 

“We have a good mixture of experienced players along with some exciting young players who have performed well in the domestic Pro Series and club season leading into this tournament,” he said. 

The Dutch squad has been depleted by the absence of several key players because of their English club commitments.

Dutch cricketers not released from their English counties to play in The @cricketworldcup qualifiers next month.

Fred Klaasen
Shane Snater
Roelof van der Merwe
Paul van Meekeren
Timm van der Gugten
Colin Ackerman
Brandon Glover

It’s just not fair.

— DB Kate (@DutchBKate) May 24, 2023

A cricket board spokesman told Dutch News that while on paper there is a ‘mandatory release’,  in reality the players might lose their place in county team or squad, should they choose to play for the Netherlands.

Bas de Leede is the exception as he has a clause in his contract, the spokesman said. “The other side of the coin of course is that it gave our young players like Shariz Ahmad, Vikram Singh and Aryan Dutt a chance,” he said.

The Dutch squad for Zimbabwe includes Scott Edwards (captain, wicke tkeeper), Max O’Dowd, Logan van Beek, Vikram Singh, Aryan Dutt, Viv Kingma, Bas de Leede, Noah Croes, Ryan Klein, Teja Nidamanuru, Wesley Barresi, Shariz Ahmad, Clayton Floyd, Michael Levitt and Saqib Zulfiqar.