Email This Article To Someone!

Despite the disappointing cancellation of the tournament for which they were preparing, the Dutch national women’s squad is hard at work.

Most weekends since October, a group of 30 of The Netherlands’ leading women cricketers have assembled at VOC’s indoor facility on the outskirts of Rotterdam under the guidance of coaches Jim Boddé, Ed de Moura Correia and Nicky Statham and fitness coach Karen Lynn Roberts Maree. The programme is partly funded by a $US2.500 (about € 2.250) grant from the ECC.

The training sessions were originally aimed at a 4 Nation Tournament which should have taken place in the Caribbean this month, but the West Indies board was unable to put together the necessary funding. Now the squad is heading for a one week training and games session at La Manga, Spain, while for the younger players the target is the European under-21 women’s championships, scheduled for The Netherlands on 15-17 August.

But for Caroline de Fouw, representative of women’s cricket on the Dutch board (KNCB), the programme’s implications extend far beyond that.

‘For us the main priority is qualification for the 2009 World Cup,’ she says. ‘These sessions are a great opportunity for the top players to work together both on fitness and on technical aspects of the game, and to work with coaches more intensively than they normally can.’

The squad is split into two groups, half doing fitness work while the other group is inside, sharpening their skills.

Inside the hall, Boddé and Statham move among the players, offering advice on batting and bowling techniques.

‘We normally start with a technical session,’ Boddé says, ‘where we focus on a particular aspect of the game. Then we move to net practice, when we can video the players and analyse what they need to work on. After the net sessions we can work with individuals, concentrating on those points.’

He is in no doubt that there has been a marked improvement over the winter. Bowlers have learned to maintain line and length more consistently, and batting techniques have been tightened up.

‘The girls have worked hard,’ says Boddé, ‘and I’m sure that the benefits will be obvious on the field this summer.’