van Troost outlines vision for Dutch cricket

Andre van Troost, the recently-appointed chief executive of the Netherlands board, has spoken to Cricket Europe about his vision for the future and the problems he faces in the coming year.

Aside from the obvious goal of qualifying for the 2011 World Cup, van Troost singled out the need to get more people playing a game which has seen numbers of participants falling off.

"We have to reverse the decline," he said. "We need new clubs, more clubs with youth sections and women's teams, just more players. The more players you have, the larger the pool of talent from which you'll find the future stars. But we can't do it alone, even with a full-time development officer. We need help from the clubs."

Attracting sponsors has been an issue and one that will prove more so given the global downturn. "We're a small sport, and the economy's in trouble. It's not an ideal climate to be looking for a new main sponsor. But there are some possibilities on the table, and in the meantime there are other things you can do."

Turning to criticism of the board, which has been a constant theme in recent years, van Troost argued that expectations needed to be managed. "It's a small outfit and we have to be realistic about what can be achieved."