The recent news that ODI status has definitively been granted to Het Schootsveld in Deventer is a fully justified reward for the dedicated group of people at the Salland club, and rightly recognises the hard work which, supported by the KNCB and their local authority, they have put in over the summer to meet the ICC’s requirements.

The Deventer ground consistently produces some of the best pitches in the country, and now that the straight boundaries have been extended it will add an attractive option in the KNCB’s programming.

The decision comes at the end of a summer which has not been easy on the pitches front, the low point coming with the shifting of two World Cricket League matches away from Westvliet at Voorburg in July and the flying in of ICC pitch consultant Andy Atkinson to advise on the preparation of pitches elsewhere.

It was always a gamble scheduling ODIs on a square which had been laid less than two years earlier and which was in its first season, but the Westvliet debacle highlighted the problems which are inherent in a country which only acquired its first turf square – at Het Schootsveld – less than fifteen years ago.

The fact is that the clubs with turf squares generally do not have the resources or the knowledge base to guarantee good pitches, and the word is that the reports on those used for both the World Cricket League and the Dutch side’s home matches in the Clydesdale Bank 40 League make pretty depressing reading.

There is no point reacting to international concern about the state of Dutch pitches with xenophobic defensiveness, as some are all too ready to do. What has been achieved in the Netherlands in the past decade is remarkable, as anyone who can remember Sri Lanka running up 443 in 50 overs on an absolute road in Amstelveen in 2006 will readily acknowledge.

But the pitches in the Amsterdamse Bos these days are a shadow of their former selves, and there are problems too at Hazelaarweg in Rotterdam and Thurlede in Schiedam (another square in its first season of use), as well as at Westvliet. This is not to criticise or condemn individuals; it is simply a recognition of the hard lessons of the past summer.

It’s an irony of the situation that what are probably the two best squares in the country, Salland’s in Deventer and Kampong’s in Utrecht, belong to clubs which do not play in the Topklasse, and in the latter case is situated at a ground which cannot at present qualify for top-level international cricket. The granting of ODI status to Het Schootsveld, however, is testimony to what can be achieved.

Nor are the difficulties confined to the clubs who play on turf. The replacement of coconut matting with Nottsweave surfaces in the higher divisions of the domestic competition was a step in the right direction, but almost without exception these artificial pitches play as slow and low as the natural ones – and sometimes a good deal more inconsistently.

There is a growing recognition that this has to do with the material on which they laid, and it’s a welcome sign that some of the clubs involved are talking about taking action to remedy the situation. They are often constrained by circumstances, especially the dual purpose nature of their grounds and the fact that whatever they put down must be compatible with the demands of football, but both batsmen and bowlers stand to benefit from the production of pitches with reasonable pace and bounce.

The intention of the KNCB to set up a groundsmen’s organisation, to pool knowledge and discuss the actions needed to improve Dutch pitches (and outfields) is also a welcome development, and a promising start will be made this weekend when ECB pitch inspector Geoff Calcott will lead a seminar and oversee the autumn ‘putting to bed’ of the Westvliet square.

If the Netherlands is to aspire to hosting major international events, from ODIs against Full members to future ICC tournaments, it must be able to guarantee playing surfaces which are up to international standards, and that is self-evidently not the case at the moment.