Bas de Leede Wants Greater Exposure for Netherlands Against Stronger Teams

Netherlands allrounder Bas de Leede has urged the ICC to provide more exposure to the associate nations in international cricket. He said that the quality of associate teams, especially Netherlands, has improved significantly over the past few years, so they deserve more matches against top teams to take their game to the next level.   

"We've shown at what level Associate cricket is at the moment, we can only ask for more and more opportunities against the big teams, ultimately that's how we're going to improve as a collective.” said Bas de Leede.

“We've got nothing planned until June. The next series is for World Cup qualification. We'll have two weeks off and training starts again." added Bas de Leede.

He then acknowledged the financial challenges that make bilateral series involving associate teams difficult, but he suggested a model like a tri-nation series, which could provide opportunities for the Netherlands while including two full-member teams.

"I get the financial reasoning. But maybe a tri-nation series [involving them and two Full Members] could be an option. I recently saw a post about a European T20 series involving England, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands and Italy.” said Bas de Leede.

He then gave the example of Italy about how it pushed England, saying that such matches showcase the growing talent of associate teams in world cricket. The allrounder hopes that the discussion around this does not end after the ICC T20 World Cup, as bigger teams should step forward to help Netherlands and other associate nations develop in international cricket.

"We saw how close Italy pushed England. So there are a lot of options. Normally during the World Cup, it gets attention and then it fades away. We can only hope this World Cup may change that. We'll see what happens in the next couple of months." added Bas de Leede.