Dutch Cricket Coach Shane Deitz will be coach of West Indies women
Published at 08 July, 2023Amstelveen, the Netherlands, 8 July 2023 – Shane Deitz has announced he will step down from the position of Dutch women’s head coach at the end of August. Shane has received an offer from West Indies Cricket to become their national women’s team head coach. The KNCB regrets Shane’s departure, but understands and supports this decision as it was “an offer he couldn’t refuse” and an important career move.
Deitz became full time coach of the Dutch women in March 2021. During his tenure as head coach the Netherlands played a creditable Global World Cup Qualifier in November 2021. The progress of the team did not go unnoticed since in June 2022 the Dutch team regained the One Day Status. In November 2022, the Netherlands recorded its first T20 win over the much higher ranked Thailand in Chiang Mai. The first ODI win over Thailand was recorded in July 2023, having won the European T10 tournament in Gibraltar in February 2023. Parallel to these good performances, no less than six Dutch players ended up in the global ICC rankings.
During Deitz’s tenure, a multi year plan was developed to further professionalise women’s cricket in the Netherlands. This plan laid the foundation of the successes achieved over the last three years.
The teams ICC ODI ranking peaked at 12th and the T20 ranking at 18th in the world. The West Indies Women’s Team, Deitz’ future employer, is ranked sixth in the world.
Deitz: “Obviously the decision to leave the Netherlands Women’s team was extremely tough as I have loved working with this team, they really are a great bunch of girls. The team has grown on and off the field and they are in a really good position now to keep pushing to qualify for a World Cup. I really want to thank the whole squad for their efforts and sacrifice they put in to get the team where they are.”
“The leaders of the team, Heather Siegers and Babette de Leede, have been great to work with and are very good leaders to take the team forward. I also want to thank the numerous assistant coaches I have had and especially Lara Nicod the team physio who really helped me with the team. Also everyone at the KNCB led by Monica, Roland and Subir have assisted and supported me greatly and I am very thankful for that. I am looking forward to my new challenge in the West Indies and hopefully the two teams will play against each other in a World Cup one day. That would be a special moment for sure.”
The Dutch national women’s team is currently preparing for a European qualification tournament for the 2025 World Cup. KNCB High Performance Manager Roland Lefebvre: “We’re going to miss Shane’s accessible personality and holistic approach on women’s cricket and wish him and his family all the best. We thank Shane for all his hard work and dedication over the past years and we will do all in our power to work on a worthly replacement to keep women’s cricket at the top of our agenda”.
