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| February 12, 2003 | Wednesday | Zul Hijjah 10, 1423 |
Holland bank on veterans
PAARL (South Africa), Feb 11: The cricketing outpost of Holland were kings of the ICC Trophy in 2001 but now fear they are about to transformed into World Cup chumps.
On Wednesday, the motley collection of part-timers and wily old veterans come up against India in the first match of their second ever World Cup.
The first was in 1996 when they lost all five matches they played — against England, Pakistan, New Zealand, UAE and South Africa.
Now they go into the South African showpiece publicly pledging confidence but privately fearing a hiding having been hopelessly outclassed at the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka last year — a tournament which was virtually a mini-World Cup.
There they were beaten by Pakistan by nine wickets and by the hosts by 206 runs — a brutal early taste of what they can expect in southern Africa where they have been placed in Group ‘A’ with world champions Australia, Pakistan, India, England, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Namibia are the side Holland beat in Toronto in 2001 to book their place among the world’s elite here.
They are led by veteran skipper Roland Lefebvre who was also in charge when the Dutch first made the finals back in 1996.
He knows the bitter experience in the Champions Trophy was a hard pill to swallow, admitting that the defeat by Pakistan was hard to take.
“We got hammered. I didn’t expect the game to be over that quick,” Lefebvre said after Pakistan, chasing just 137 to win, achieved their target in just 16.2 overs.
That game was only the seventh full One-day International for the Dutch but at least they batted the distance of 50 overs.
“I am glad we stayed for 50 overs and that was one of the positives from the match,” said Lefebvre who was his side’s top scorer with 32 followed by fellow veteran Tim de Leede who scored 24.
Against Sri Lanka, they had been skittled out for just 86 chasing a massive 292-6.
With eight of their squad having had their first taste of international cricket in Sri Lanka last year, much will be depend on Lefebvre and De Leede.
Lefebvre, now 40, played county cricket for Somerset and Glamorgan while all-rounder De Leede, a former skipper, has also played in England with Northamptonshire, Sussex and Surrey.
The Dutch will be happy with any experience gained and will hope for at least a win over Namibia to stimulate interest in a sport which gets little coverage at home.
Teams (from):
INDIA: Saurav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel, Sanjay Bangar, Ajit Agarkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif.
HOLLAND: Roland Lefebvre (captain), Luuk van Troost, Daan van Bunge, Jacob Esmeijer, Victor Grandia, Feiko Kloppenburg, Tim de Leede, Henk Mol, Klaus van Noortwijk, Adeel Raja, Edgar Schiferli, Reinhout Scholte, Jeroen Smits, Nick Statham, Bas Zuiderent.
Umpires: Daryl Harper (Australia) and Peter Willey (England).
TV umpire: Nadeem Ghauri (Pakistan).
Match referee: Denis Lindsay (South Africa).—AFP
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