Dutch cricket will launch a new era later this month when a squad of twenty players, including six youngsters who have not yet played for their country, will undertake a tour to the United Arab Emirates and India.

The 20-man squad includes two pace bowlers – Hermes-DVS Schiedam’s Sebastiaan Braat and Rood en Wit Haarlem’s Paul van Meekeren – who were included in CB40 squads last season but did not play, and four complete newcomers: Dosti Amsterdam’s wicketkeeper-batsman Rahil Ahmed (18), Quick Haag batsman James Gruijters (19), Sussex’s South African-born left-arm spinner Michael Rippon (20), and VOC Rotterdam’s 14-year-old spin bowling prodigy Daniel Doram.

Add to this group 21-year-old VRA batsman-leg spinner Vinoo Tewarie, who played in one ODI against Scotland two years ago, and it is clear that the tour, which is part of the KNCB’s sponsorship agreement with ABN AMRO and includes a spell of intensive coaching at the ICC’s Global Cricket Academy in Dubai, will provide an important opportunity for these emerging players to develop their skills.

And with matches against the UAE Academy, Mumbai Academy and the England Performance Programme, they will also have an opportunity to prove themselves on the field and stake a claim for a place in future Dutch sides.

Apart from Orange Lion regulars Tom Cooper and Timm van der Gugten, both of whom are occupied with their states in Australian domestic cricket, the squad also features the core of the full-strength side, and there is a notable recall for Daan van Bunge, who played in one CB40 match towards the end of last season after a three-year absence and who will now have a chance to re-establish his place in the middle order.

But there is no place in the party for Rood en Wit allrounder Shahbaz Bashir, despite his century on his Dutch debut against the UAE in the Intercontinental Cup last season.

Braat and Van Meekeren, whose bowling showed marked improvement this year after a winter in New Zealand, will form part of a pace division led by Mudassar Bukhari and Ashan Malik Jamil, with Tom Heggelman also among the more experienced players. Van Meekeren is back in New Zealand this winter, and has made a good start to the club season in Nelson.

It may be the spinners, however, who attract the most attention in sub-continental conditions. Rippon’s chinamen have earned him a regular spot in Sussex’s Twenty20 side, and he has also played for both Western Province and the franchise team Cape Cobras in his native South Africa.

He has been on the Dutch selectors’ radar since as a 16-year-old he played a few matches for VRA in 2008, and he had a full season with ACC two years later, although then he had more success with the bat than with the ball.

He has impressed at Hove, however, and he and his fellow Dutch passport holder Kirk Wernars are both thought to have a promising future with the county. Unfortunately for Rippon and the Dutch management, however, he is currently injured and will certainly miss out on the Dubai leg of the tour; it is uncertain whether he will be fit enough to join the side in India.

Then there is Doram, who hails from the island of Sint Maarten in the West Indies, and who created a big impression during a brief stay in the Netherlands last summer, taking lots of wickets in Dutch under-age teams and claiming four for 29 for VOC in his first Topklasse match. Tall and rangy and already bowling with a great deal of guile, he seems destined to go far.

With two contrasting young left-arm spinners alongside first-team regular Pieter Seelaar the batsmen can rely on plenty of opportunities to develop their technique in this area.

Vinoo Tewarie had a comparatively poor Topklasse season this year after making significant progress in 2011, but he remains a player of considerable promise who is likely to benefit greatly from the chance to concentrate on his cricket for almost a month in conditions which will favour his abilities with both bat and ball.

James Gruijters has been a regular member of Quick Haag’s side for the past two seasons, and actually made more runs in 2012 than his better-known elder brother Tim, who is also included in the touring party. He and Dosti’s Ahmed have responded well to the opportunities they have been given by their clubs, and they can only benefit from the opportunities provided by this tour.

With some demanding matches at the latter end of the tour the selectors will be pleased that they have been able to include Stephan Myburgh, Michael Swart and Worcestershire’s Alexei Kervezee in the squad. The Netherlands’ coming challenges include two WCL Championship matches and an Intercontinental Cup game against Namibia in Windhoek in March, and all three could have key roles to play as the Dutch battle to claim one of the two automatic qualification places for the 2015 World Cup.

Among the more experienced members of the party, Tom de Grooth and Eric Szwarczynski found themselves on the fringes of the full side in 2012, and this tour will give them the chance to stake their claims for a more regular place. With Swart, Myburgh, Wesley Barresi and Peter Borren automatic choices for the top seven, and with Cooper and Kervezee coming in when they are available, there is likely to be plenty of competition for the one or two remaining slots.

The most ambitious close-season venture the Dutch have undertaken for many years, this tour is a tangible gain from the KNCB’s contract with ABN AMRO, and the development opportunities which it provides will go some way towards meeting the complaint of critics that not enough has been done to produce home-grown players capable of performing on the international stage. Now it is down to the players to show what they can do.

The full squad is:
Rahil Ahmed (Dosti Amsterdam), Wesley Barresi, Peter Borren (both VRA Amsterdam), Sebastiaan Braat (Hermes-DVS Schiedam), Daan van Bunge (Excelsior ’20 Schiedam), Daniel Doram (VOC Rotterdam), Tom de Grooth (HCC), James Gruijters, Tim Gruijters (both Quick Haag), Tom Heggelman (Excelsior ’20 Schiedam), Alexei Kervezee (Worcestershire), Ashan Malik Jamil (VOC Rotterdam), Paul van Meekeren (Rood en Wit Haarlem), Mudassar Bukhari (ACC), Stephan Myburgh (Excelsior ’20 Schiedam), Michael Rippon (Western Province and Sussex), Pieter Seelaar (Hermes-DVS Schiedam), Michael Swart (Western Australia and Bootle), Eric Szwarczynski and Vinoo Tewarie (both VRA Amsterdam).