Netherlands to arrive India for practice matches before ICC World Cup

In a significant boost to Netherlands’ preparation for the ICC World Cup 2023, the Dutch outfit will arrive here in the second week of September for a few warm-up matches. The details of the matches, like dates and venues, are still being worked out, as these will be played a few days ahead of the scheduled pre-tournament warm-up matches. “Yes, we will be arriving (in India) a few days earlier and we will play some matches before entering the official warm-up games.” These matches are important for us because we are yet to play any competitive matches after getting qualified to the World Cup earlier last month,” a Netherlands cricket association (KNCB) official told. After the practice games in Bengaluru, the Netherlands will travel either to Hyderabad or Thiruvananthapuram for official warm-up matches. However, Hyderabad is the preferred destination of the Dutchmen because they will play their first two World Cup matches in the city. Netherlands will open their World Cup campaign against Pakistan on October 6 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, while on October 9 they will take on New Zealand at the same venue. The busy schedule for Netherlands ahead of the quadrennial showpiece assumes importance because their coach Ryan Cook had made an emotional plea to allot them some matches in the sub-continent to get acclimatised to the conditions. “This is a call-out to anyone who wants to play us. We’d love to have a fixture or two. Our guys have not been to the sub-continent many times before so it would be good to have some fixtures somewhere in the sub-continent as well,” Cook had said post their World Cup entry. This will be Netherlands’ fifth appearance in the World Cup, but first one since 2011.