Klaassen, Van der Merwe, Ackermann, Meekeren miss out as Netherlands announce squad for World Cup Qualifier

Big blow for the Netherlands cricket team as many of their key players might be missing the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier due to their county commitments. Some of the major missings from the squad will be Roelof van der Merwe, Colin Ackermann, and Frederick Klaasen. Notably, these players had a key role to play in Netherlands’ triumph over South Africa in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. In fact, C0lin Ackermann was declared the Player of the Match against South Africa.

All these players will not be part of the competition slated to be played in June-July in Zimbabwe. Along with that, the fast bowlers Brandon Glover and Timm van der Gugten are also missing from the list of players to play for the Netherlands in the tournament. Whereas, the likes of Bas de Leede, an all-rounder who recently qualified as a local and signed a two-year contract with Durham in February, has been included in the team because of a stipulation in the agreement which permits the 23-year-old to play in the tournament.

Although counties are required to permit their players to compete for their Associate teams in ICC competitions, players and boards are aware that counties are unable to enforce that rule for fear of certain players losing their county contracts. Since the county arrangements give the players financial security, Klaasen had described this as a "tricky situation" in an interview from last year.

The current skipper of the Netherlands cricket team, Scott Edwards has looked very optimistic with the side ahead of the Qualifiers. The 26-year-old said that right from the Zimbabwe series a few months ago, the team has been preparing for the Qualifiers. The wicketkeeper-batter also felt that the team has brighter chances in the tournament as the team has a good mixture of young and experienced players.

 “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," Edward said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

The Netherlands will compete against Zimbabwe, the United States, Nepal, and the West Indies from Group A on June 20, 22, 24, and 26, respectively. Whereas the teams like Sri Lanka, Ireland, Scotland, Oman, and the UAE make up Group B. In the Super Sixes stage, the top three players from each group will only play teams they did not face in the group round. The top two teams from the Super Sixes will be contesting in the ICC Cricket World Cup which is scheduled to be played in India in October and November.

Squad: Scott Edwards (captain, wk), Max O'Dowd, Logan van Beek, Vikramjit Singh, Aryan Dutt, Vivian Kingma, Bas de Leede, Noah Croes, Ryan Klein, Teja Nidamanuru, Wesley Barresi, Shariz Ahmad, Clayton Floyd, Michael Levitt, Saqib Zulfiqar.