Dear cricket friends,
Published at 20 January, 2025A new year has begun, in which once again wonderful cricket events are on the agenda, including in the Netherlands! For both men and women, for example, the Netherlands will host qualifying tournaments for the 2026 T20 World Cups next summer.
This month, our national women’s team will start on January 30 with a TriSeries in Nepal, together with Thailand. Later in the year, the men will play World Cup League 2 matches (50 overs) as well as T20Is in Scotland.
Preparations for the new season are in full swing at all clubs, which was very noticeable for us in the great interest in the explanation of the new competition format for the men. We appreciate both this turnout and the constructive thinking along with this set-up towards 2026, which will have sporting challenges in 2025.
A spectacular first is also the European T20 Premier League, which will be played in Ireland and the Netherlands in July and August. In the six participating (private) teams, there will be room for a large number of local European players. Indian sponsors will help the Scottish, Irish Dutch cricket associations with the organisation.
Parallel to these great initiatives, as we explained during the GMM last December, we have financial issues to solve. Together with Lucas Hendrikse, who started as interim CEO last month, our top priority is to get our finances in order and to implement structural improvements. The special task force led by honorary member Amit Parulekar advises the board on this, in close consultation with the CEO. We are also in touch with our partners at ICC and NOC*NSF about possible additional financial support and we are actively looking for sponsors with various parties.
This does not stand in the way of ambitious goals and further professionalisation. Strong growth in the number of cricketers in the Netherlands remains a top priority, as well as high rankings of our national teams. The latter, in addition to the sporting ambition that we have as KNCB, is important because good performances of our national teams (such as qualification for and participation in World Cups) lead to considerable additional income from the ICC and are attractive to potential sponsors.
In other words, the current circumstances do not prevent us from remaining ambitious and looking ahead. On the contrary, we are working with even more energy and passion on a future-proof KNCB. But we certainly can't and don't want to do that only with the board and the employees of the KNCB office. Perhaps more than ever, we will have to work together as a Dutch cricket community and join forces. This beautiful sport binds us all and it is high time that the rest of sports-loving Holland also realises that. Cricket combines competition, fun and relaxation and we as a cricket community are the face of this. Internationally, the sport is very much on the map, which has been confirmed by the Olympic status from 2028: together we are the face of this major international sport in the Netherlands. Let's join forces and work together to show this to the Netherlands!
At the end of February, we will schedule an online meeting to update the clubs on the developments. Let's all make it a fantastic cricket year, in which we will see each other regularly along the boundary!
On behalf of the board,
Guido Landheer
Chairman KNCB
