The Royal Dutch Cricket Association (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond, KNCB) is the governing body of

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

in the

Kingdom of the Netherlands , national_anthem = ) , image_map = Kingdom of the Netherlands (orthographic projection).svg , map_width = 250px , image_map2 = File:KonDerNed-10-10-10.png , map_caption2 = Map of the four constituent countries shown to scale , capital = ...

. It was formed in 1890 and received a Royal charter in 1958. The KNCB is responsible for the national men's and women's teams, and also for the various domestic competitions, including the

Topklasse The Derde Divisie (; en, Third Division), formerly known as Topklasse (; en, Top Class), is the fourth tier of football in the Netherlands, which had its inaugural season as a third tier in 2010–11 and as a fourth tier in 2016–17. The league ...

(Division One) and

Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie, formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general. Background The league is divided into two sections: Saturday and Sunday. This is a result of ...

(Division Two) leagues, and the

Dutch Twenty20 Cup The Dutch Twenty20 Cup is a Twenty20 cricket league in the Netherlands, run by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond The Royal Dutch Cricket Association (Dutch: Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond, KNCB) is the governing body of cricket in t ...

. The KNCB has been an associate member of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

since 1966. It is one of the oldest national governing bodies in the sport, older than those of many full ICC members. The KNCB is also a member of the

European Cricket Council The European Cricket Council (ECC) is an international body which oversaw cricket in European countries other than the Test-playing cricketing nation of England, the only European Full Member of the ICC for the duration of the ECC's existence. ...

, which organises the

European Cricket Championship The European Cricket Championship was a group of various tournaments in which national cricket sides throughout Europe competed. The competition was designed to encourage and develop the best players in countries where cricket was not a major sp ...

Overview

Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond is an administrative organization responsible for the promotion, development, and organization of the sport of

in the Netherlands. It controls the men's national team, and the women's national team teams. The women's national team currently have

Test status Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last f ...

and played their first Test match in 2007. A total of 57 cricket clubs take part in the domestic season, which include the Hoofdklasse, Topklasse and the region T20 cricket.

History

Cricket was first seen being played on Dutch soil in the 1780s by an English traveller in Scheveningen, and by the turn of the 20th century, Dutch teams were touring England regularly. Cricket was one of the most popular sports in the Netherlands in the 19th century, surpassed since by many other sports, most notably association football. Cricket even found enough of a following to survive the German occupation of the country between May 1940 and May 1945. The sport, famously dismissed as "unmanly and un-German" and "insufficiently violent" by

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

himself, endured thanks in no small part to the dogged enthusiasm of local players, who shrugged off the requisitioning of grounds and restrictions on weekend travel – not to mention the presence of thousands of heavily armed Nazis and the bombing of the main sports dealers in Rotterdam – to organise as many as 300 matches a year. The KNCB has been an associate member of the

since 1966. There are a few cricket grounds in the Netherlands which are officially sanctioned by the ICC to host ODIs such as

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villages o ...

and

Voorburg Voorburg is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it makes up the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has a population of about 39,000 people ...

. It hosted some of the matches of the

1999 Cricket World Cup The 1999 Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Cricket World Cup '99) was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted primarily by England, with Scotland, Ireland, Wales ...

, though the Dutch did not participate in that tournament. The Dutch participated in the

1996 Cricket World Cup The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also called the Wills World Cup 1996 after the Wills Navy Cut brand produced by tournament sponsor ITC, was the sixth Cricket World Cup organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was the second World Cu ...

2003 Cricket World Cup The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003. This edition of the World Cup was the f ...

2007 Cricket World Cup The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth Cricket World Cup, a One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007. There were a total of 51 matches played, three fewer than at the ...

, and

2011 Cricket World Cup The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and for the first time in Bangladesh. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, thus ...

. In their debut campaign, they lost all of their matches barring a respectful performance against England. They qualified for the 2003 edition after winning the

2001 ICC Trophy The 2001 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament played in Ontario, Canada in 2001. It was the Cricket World Cup qualification tournament for the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Three spots in the World Cup were on offer and the Netherlands, host nation Canada ...

, with their only win of the World Cup tournament coming against fellow qualifier Namibia. It was around this time that stars and excellent cricketers like Ronald Lefebvre and

Ryan ten Doeschate Ryan Neil ten Doeschate (; born 30 June 1980) is a former Dutch–South African cricketer who played for the Netherlands national cricket team in One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket. Ten Doeschate was named ICC ...

started emerging to make Dutch cricket much more strong.

Present day

The Dutch qualified for the 2007 World Cup with a fifth-place finish at the

2005 ICC Trophy The 2005 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament held in Ireland between 1 July and 13 July 2005. It was an international one-day tournament played over 50 overs per side between 12 Associate Members of the International Cricket Council. It served a ...

. The Dutch struggled in the tournament, losing their first two games, with South African

Herschelle Gibbs Herschelle Herman Gibbs (born 23 February 1974) is a South African cricket coach and former cricketer, who played all formats of the game for fourteen years. A right-handed batsman, mostly opened the batting, Gibbs became the first player to hi ...

notably hitting

Dan van Bunge Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoi ...

for six sixes in an over. They did recover to beat Scotland by eight wickets in their last game. After failing to qualify for the

2007 ICC World Twenty20 The 2007 ICC World Twenty20 was the inaugural Twenty20 International cricket world championship, contested in South Africa from 11 to 24 September 2007. Twelve teams took part in the thirteen-day tournament—the ten Test-playing nations and the ...

, they qualified for the

2009 ICC World Twenty20 The 2009 ICC World Twenty20 was an international Twenty20 cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) that took place in England in June 2009. It was the second ICC World Twenty20 tournament, following the inaugural ...

, where they shocked host England at Lord's. After years of stagnation, the women's game is also developing rapidly in the Netherlands. Recently, the women's team outshone the men's team and they were given

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

status by the ICC in 2007 unlike their male counterparts. They played their inaugural Test match against South Africa Women in 2007. The Dutch team qualified for the

by coming third in the

2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier The 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place in April 2009 in South Africa. It was the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. The tournament is the renamed version ...

. They did not make much of an impression, losing all of their matches, but giving England a fright in

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

, where Ryan ten Doeschate smashed 119 runs. 2010 turned out to be a memorable year for Dutch cricket as they defeated two Test-playing nations in the form of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The Netherlands cricket team participated in the Intercontinental Cup and Intercontinental Cup One-Day while the women's team won the 2011 Women's European Championship Twenty20. More recently, they participated in the

2011 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2011 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a ten-team tournament held in Bangladesh in November 2011 to decide the final four qualifiers for the 2013 Women's Cricket World Cup. Additionally, the top two teams, excluding Sri Lanka and West I ...

where they came third in Group A, thus gaining both ODI Status and World Cup participation.

Name change

Before 1958 it was known as the Nederlandse Cricket Bond or the Dutch Cricket Board. After receiving a Royal charter in 1958, a ’Royal’ was added before the board's name known simply as

Koninklijk or (, Dutch for 'royal') is an honorary title given to certain companies and non-profit organisations in the Netherlands and to a lesser extent Belgium, by the monarchs of each country. It was first introduced by Louis Bonaparte in 1807, then Ki ...

e in Dutch. The following names have been for the board in their history:- * Nederlandse Cricket Bond (Dutch Cricket Board) *

e Nederlandse Cricket Bond (Royal Dutch Cricket Board)

Competitions

As well as maintaining Dutch international sides, the KNCB is also responsible for managing the regional domestic competitions. The following domestic competitions are organized in the Netherlands:- *

Eerste Klasse The Eerste Klasse ( en, First Class) started as the 1st tier of football in the Netherlands and is now the 6th tier. The league is divided into eleven divisions, six for Saturday clubs and five for Sunday clubs. These divisions correspond to the s ...

* Topklasse Twenty20 Cup In addition, a number of youth programs as well as ladies programs are organized in the Netherlands.

Women's cricket

The Netherlands Women's Team was traditionally weak but in the last few years, they have made tremendous development, gaining Test status and out showing the men in recent times.

Sponsorship

Amul Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL) is an Indian dairy state government cooperative society, based in Anand, Gujarat. Formed in 1946, it is a cooperative brand managed by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today i ...

was the official sponsor of the Dutch cricket team during the

. More recently, the KNCB had a ground-breaking sponsorship with leading Dutch bank

ABN AMRO ABN or abn may refer to: Companies * ABN AMRO Group, a Dutch bank group * ABN AMRO, sometimes referred to as "ABN" in shorthand, is a Dutch state-owned bank * Algemene Bank Nederland, a now-defunct Dutch bank Radio, news and television organizat ...

, with chief executive Richard Cox announcing that with this partnership, by the

2015 Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by Aust ...

, they can contract professionally many players. It is a four-year deal running till 2016.Netherlands gain sponsorship deal
ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 12 January 2012

References

External links

Official websiteCricketEurope Dutch cricket timeline
{{Sports governing bodies in the Netherlands Cricket administration in the Netherlands

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Cric Sports organizations established in 1883 Organisations based in Utrecht (province) Sport in Nieuwegein