Dutch captain Peter Borren has made it clear that his side will be thinking of nothing else but victory in the World Cricket League Division 1 tournament and believes it’s time his side won a title - especially with the tournament being staged in its backyard.

“Things like the development of the side and preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 can be put on a hold for the time being. The immediate task is to play and perform in the most important and competitive tournament featuring the top Associate and Affiliate sides. It is imperative for us to not only do well but win it. I’ll be extremely disappointed if we don’t win this tournament.

“It is a great opportunity for us to play in this tournament where every match is an ODI. We need to make optimum use of this great opportunity and give a good account of ourselves,” Borren said.

The Netherlands' most recent victory was against Scotland in Rotterdam last week when it won by six wickets, thanks to an unbeaten 80 by debutant Tom Cooper and a typically aggressive 90 by Ryan ten Doeschate. However, ten Doeschate has been ruled out for the tournament with an injury.

“We have a very settled side in one-day cricket and we’ve been gelling very nicely as a team. We’ve always done reasonably well in ICC events against the other top Associates so I think we’ll be very competitive, especially considering we’ll have home advantage,” he said.

The Dutch will be without some of its most inspiring performers in the injured Ryan ten Doeschate, recently retired Edgar Schiferli and unavailable Daan van Bunge while Alex Kervezee of Worcestershire will be available only for the 3 July match against Kenya unless the Netherlands reaches the 10 July final.

“The younger players have shown a lot of potential, especially Mark Jonkman who has blossomed under the wing of Schiferli and is now ready to stamp his mark at the bigger stage. He is fast and keeps coming back at the batsmen. He is an excellent bowler in the death overs. As far as I’m concerned, he is the one to watch out for in this tournament,” Borren said.

Borren expressed satisfaction with his side’s build-up the tournament. “We have been playing a lot of limited-overs cricket this season with our involvement in the Clydesdale Bank Pro40 competition in England and this has really helped us. We have been playing pretty well in that - we beat Derbyshire - and we should have won a couple of other games too but we couldn’t quite get over the line.

“We hadn’t played in an English competition for years and we saw how much it did for cricket in Ireland and Scotland so it’s great to be involved in that. I think all this has been good preparation for the World Cricket League.”

Borren said it was a great opportunity for his side to play in a quality tournament like this one which provided equal opportunity to every side. “It is going to be an evenly matched tournament as each side can beat the other on its day.

“Ireland has done well over the years at this level while Afghanistan is another dangerous side. However, I think all the sides will start on an even keel as they are all evenly matched. I think it will boil down to the fact which side adjusts quickly to the conditions, handles the pressure, plays to its strengths and converts the opportunities.”

The Netherlands: Peter Borren (captain), Tom de Grooth, Mark Jonkman, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Szwarczynski, Mudassar Bukhari, Atse Buurman, Tom Cooper, Adeel Raja, Maurits Jonkman, Muhammad Kashif, Alex Kervezee, Bradley Kruger, Nicolas Statham, Bas Zuiderent.