Dick Polvliet

The author, born in 1929, is a former HCC player, scorer and scoreboard operator, one time captain of the fourth eleven, and a former editor of De Diepput Echo.

As an old fogey I have long hesitated over whether I should reply to what I shall call Fred Beekman’s cry of distress about the way things are going in the Dutch cricket world. It is possible that my comments will be set aside as old-fashioned moaning. But I shall make them anyway; you never know. As a sponsor and spectator I am completely in agreement with his coded criticism of the KNCB Board’s policies. That has succumbed to the temptation of the zeitgeist of having to perform, no matter what it costs, enticed by the ICC’s money.

The Topklasse competition is utterly plagued by all those international matches amateur Dutch cricketers take part in with small hope of success. (The fuss about the victory over England is ridiculous; that was the proverbial exception to the rule.) The leading Dutch domestic competition has become a farce with far too many individuals from outside the club in an attempt to finish as high as possible – at the expense of your own youth. The ICC money has to be spent on them.

Youngsters who do really well should look in professional circles (outside the Netherlands), as happens in the football world. The others, young and old, ought to get the opportunity to play uninterrupted, in Zomi matches alongside the existing Zami and Twenty20 games. Then it will again be fun on the grounds, above all if not only the T20 matches but the rest as well are accompanied with official commentary, which is of great importance for spectators. And preferably without all that musical racket which it seems must pound out these days. Who really wants that? (That is naturally old-fashioned talk, you always have to move with the times!?) Moreover, the new stand [at De Diepput] is with its high steps an almost unconquerable fortress for the elderly.

In short, the rudder needs to be turned around, beginning at the bottom, by the club administrators, so that the KNCB Board becomes once again truly Royal, as HCC is: genuine amateurs, who play the game for fun, adapted to Dutch possibilities.

Feiko Kloppenburg

A veteran of 60 internationals, Feiko Kloppenburg played 187 Hoofdklasse games for Rood en Wit Haarlem before transferring to HCC in 2004. He has played played 96 times for his new club, captaining the first team in 2008 and 2009. He retired from first team cricket at the end of the latter season, but appeared once in the Topklasse last year.

Fred,
Herewith my brief reaction to your good article.

I understand, and also share, your concerns. Things seem at first glance to be still going well, with the first team in the top division and the second just below, with a number of championships for the juniors. The Friday Evening Competition also remains a great success.

I myself grew up at Kon. HFC and Rood en Wit in Haarlem, and there unfortunately a great division between football and cricket soon came about. The great and enjoyable thing about our club is that you can still speak of one club. Of course you get disagreements over the availability of the main ground and so on, but that is to be expected.

Given that the cricket section is a good deal smaller than the football section it also lies with the cricketers to demonstrate their commitment to the club throughout the whole year. The number of active cricketers who also show their faces in the winter now and then and come to have a beer is too small, and through this we tend to lose the connection with the football section and you come increasingly to be seen as a separate section.

I am, moreover, entirely in agreement with you about the Dutch national side, and the constant search for foreigners who happen to have a Dutch passport in the family. If a ‘foreigner’ like Bernard Loots, who has lived and worked here for a long time, plays for the national side I have no problem with that, because there is already a connection with the Netherlands.

The structure of the competition was indeed extremely confusing, and so was the schedule. I gather the structure is going to be clearer next season, but I fear the schedule will nevertheless again be adapted to suit the needs of the national side. Cricket in the Netherlands is too small to play without the internationals; we, for example, would then lose four players.

Twenty20 is a great success, and perhaps the future lies there more than with 50-over games.

As a club we are still well placed, and certainly that’s so in comparison with other clubs like Quick and HBS, but it is up to us to maintain that role and, as I said before, as cricketers to show more involvement with the club.

Auke Smits

Another former captain of HCC, Auke Smits played 165 Hoofdklasse matches for the club between 1963 and 1989, also appearing ten times in the Dutch side. He is the father of former national captain, and current high performance adviser to the KNCB, Jeroen Smits.

I am one of the few happy survivors who was privileged to play for several years under the captaincy of Fred Beekman in HCC 1. Fred blossomed during a match as a fanatical and skilful strategist. It will not surprise my contemporaries that above all before and after the game it was one big party. With this at the back of our minds, looking at the current generation of players, this aspect has undoubtedly been shoved into the background.

With the opening up of borders, partly through affordable air fares, young people can easily travel for a few weeks or months to the other side of the world, and love of the club is therefore quite a different phenomenon. There are hardly any players these days who appear in 300 or more matches for either HVV (with the exception of Derick Mekking) or HCC (with the exception of Jeroen Smits).

In addition, there have in comparison with around twenty years ago so many more options developed for young people, that sport – in this case cricket – is no longer the highest priority for most. If Fred is right, then, in remarking that the schedule of the Dutch cricket competition is being adapted to the matches of the national side and thus acquires a random character, that can only accelerate the decline in present and future players.

The current Dutch national side (largely composed of foreigners), which is kept alive by ICC funding, is fine for cricket in general, but it must, to keep cricket in the Netherlands alive, subject itself to the interests of the domestic competition.

I also agree with Fred that matches should be played over 30, or possibly 35, over. I have it from a reliable source that under ICC rules there is no possibility of playing 30- or 35-over matches. My solution: then just change the rules!! Start on Sunday afternoon around two o’clock, finish around 6:30. By doing this you give the players a quiet Sunday morning, and most spectators generally arrive at the moment around borreltijd [the cocktail hour]. You would also prevent a situation where spectators arrive at an ‘empty’ Diepput, since in the existing competition a match can already be over by two o’clock.

In contrast with Fred, I am not a supporter of playing two matches in a weekend. Players, and spectators too, find playing or watching nearly five hours of sport a big demand. And then two matches in a weekend seems like too much of a good thing in these (fast-moving) times.

The bonus of the 20-over match (three or four times a season) on a Friday evening must naturally continue.

In conclusion: I fully support the (constructive) criticism from my former skipper.