As the National Cricket Academy emerging camp players sweated it out at the KSCA Alur stadium on Thursday morning, in the adjoining ground, players from Netherlands were hard at work getting used to Indian conditions. Netherlands bagged the last ICC World Cup slot in July and are determined to make the most of the opportunity at the sport’s showpiece event.
Although the Netherlands cricket board is yet to name their squad for the event beginning next month in India, 12 players — mostly spinners and batters – arrived in Bengaluru on Tuesday to finetune their skills.
“The camps here will be an opportunity for the World Cup squad to come together and train in Indian conditions. We will also be training and putting the final touches to a preparation which has been very professionally driven by both players and coaches,” head coach Ryan Cook, who is overseeing the week-long camp, told TOI.
Asked if the Dutch would avail the services of any local coaching resources for the camp, a Dutch cricket board official said, “No. Ryan Cook, Ryan van Niekerk (assistant coach) and Heino Kuhn (assistant coach) are all from South Africa, so we didn’t need reinforcements.”
Of the players in attendance, eight have earned their national caps and were part of the Netherlands squad which played the qualifier in Zimbabwe in July. The line-up includes skipper Scott Edwards, a wicketkeeper-bat, the seasoned Wesley Barresi, a 39-year-old batter and off-spinner, who came out of one-and-a-half year retirement in 2022 and openers Maxwell O’Dowd and Vikramjit Singh.
The Dutch players will return home on September 6, a day before the team is announced. They will set up base again at the Alur facility from September 19-28.
“We have three practice matches scheduled against Karnataka teams. It will help us bring role clarity and cohesiveness as the World Cup gets closer,” pointed out Cook, who was also the fielding coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad this season.
Players at the camp: Maxwell O’Dowd, Scott Edwards, Vikramjit Singh, Aryan Dutt, Teja Nidamanuru, Wesley Barresi, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Clayton’s Floyd, Daniel Doram, Noah Croes, Arnav Jain, Philippe Boissevain.
