Tom de Grooth making most of the "golden weeks" of his career

Opener Tom de Grooth considers the last couple of weeks to be the golden period of his professional career as Paul-Jan Bakker ends his stint as the Netherlands interim coach on a winning note in the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007/08.

De Grooth, a graduate of the ICC Winter Training Camp for the Associate teams' most promising players, missed his maiden first-class century by two runs against Scotland earlier this month in Aberdeen but scored a brilliant 196 against Bermuda in Amstelveen this week.

De Grooth's vigil helped the Netherlands post 440 in reply to Bermuda's 183. Things did not improve for Bermuda as it fell for the same score in the second innings to lose by an innings and 44 runs. Besides de Grooth's heroics, wrist spinner Mangesh Panchal also made a valuable contribution by claiming 8-78 in the match.

The victory puts the Netherlands on top of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007/08 table with 34 points from three matches. Its closest rivals, Canada and Scotland which are jointly placed second on 26 points, have no more matches this year while defending champion Ireland, lying fourth with nine points, has just one game remaining in 2007.

Bermuda is the only team with a realistic chance of overtaking the Netherlands before the end of the year as it has three matches remaining (including the one against Ireland starting in Dublin next week) with a maximum of 60 points available.

De Grooth believes the last two weeks are a result of his three years of rigorous training and hard work. He said: "The last couple of weeks have been incredible for me. They are the golden weeks of my professional career so far. I think I did everything right as a batsman and with no cricket for the rest of the year, I can now concentrate on my studies as a very happy and satisfied man."

De Grooth, who now has 630 runs from 17 innings in 10 first-class matches, has scored the most runs in the ICC intercontinental Cup 2007/08 to date with 345 runs at 69 from five innings while his closest rivals are Sunil Dhaniram of Canada (244) and Neil McCallum of Scotland (217).

De Grooth says he was disappointed to missed out on his maiden century in Aberdeen but believes that innings made him a better batsman. "It was disappointing to miss the century there but I believe it made me a more mature and stronger batsman.

"In the game against the Netherlands, the aim was to stay at the crease, be selective with stroke selection and get a big score, something I couldn't do against Scotland. It is an awesome feeling and I can be proud of what I have done this month," said de Grooth.

De Grooth feels attending the ICC Winter Training Camp in 2005 in Pretoria also helped him understand the game better. "Until I attended the camp, I thought you only prepared for a game by batting and bowling in the nets. But when I went there, I got to know that you have to prepare yourself mentally and physically as well. For me, these were magic words," he said.

De Grooth's coach Paul-Jan Bakker has mixed feelings as he bows out as the Netherlands coach. "While I am in a limbo regarding my future, I am delighted with the way the team has ended the season. It has been a tough one but the team always bounced back with good performances," Bakker said.

Bakker believes his team showed its true character in the match against Bermuda. "We suffered a heavy defeat in a build-up to this match but to recover from that setback and win the match by an innings and that too with a clinical performance, clearly reflects that the team is on an upward move and getting better with every match.

"After the Scotland match, we needed to be quite strict with our batting and bowling, and show discipline. I am glad that we responded and produced a performance any coach can be proud of.

"It is sad that I am leaving this team but I am satisfied that I am leaving it in a very healthy state," said Bakker who took over as interim coach of the Dutch side from Peter Cantrell following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in the West Indies, adding: "I want to continue as coach because I have ideas to raise the standards and those ideas are reflected in the team's performance."

Bakker praised the performance of de Grooth and Panchal. "De Grooth has improved immensely over the summer and the major improvement he has done is in his shot selection.

"Panchal skids the ball, like Anil Kumble does, and therefore is a very difficult bowler to pick. He has made an impressive start to his first-class career and needs to learn a lot, including controlling his enthusiasm," Bakker said.

The ICC Intercontinental Cup has quickly grown in stature and profile since its inception three years ago and now the ICC's premier first-class tournament is an integral part of the Associate Members' cricket schedule.

Having previously been designed around a two-group, three-day format, the event has evolved into an eight-team, round-robin and truly global tournament featuring four-day cricket which gives those teams who do not play Test cricket the chance to experience the longer form of the game.

Scotland won the first ICC Intercontinental Cup in 2004, beating Canada in the final, while Ireland has been victorious in both events since then, beating Kenya in the 2005 decider and Canada earlier this year in the 2006-07 event.

The final of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007-08 will take place in November 2008 at a venue yet to be decided.