Opening International Dutch Grass Wicket (28 Jul 1996)

28 July 1996

Opening International Dutch Grass Wicket

by Louis van Dompselaar

Saturday 27 July 1996 opening of the KNCB's (Royal Dutch Cricket Association) grass wicket in Amsterdam with a match between a KNCB President's XI and the Flamingos, both teams consisting of Premier League players. The wicket, in the "National Cricket Centre" in Amsterdam, will be the home ground for the Dutch team for all future international matches. The opening of the wicket comes some 6 weeks after the opening of the first grass wicket in The Netherlands, in Deventer. This wicket was an initiative by the Deventer club Koninklijke UD, without support from the KNCB. However, expertise from the Deventer club, as well as from the TCCB groundsman Mike Corley, was called in to get the Amsterdam grass wicket finished. It is still unknown when the first international match will be played in Amsterdam. Two international matches are already planned for the Deventer wicket. On 6 August, Hampshire will play a Kon. UD President's XI, and August 7th an English XI captained by Alan Lamb will meet a Dutch XI.