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When Emmerson Trotman first played professional cricket in Holland 25 years ago, there was hardly any attention to the sport in the Dutch country.

I couldn't understand why they were getting mixed up between cricket and soccer, the former Barbados batsman said.

Fifteen years later, however, cricket has developed to the extent that Holland are on the verge of qualifying for the World Cup for the second time.

And Trotman, who played 21 first-class matches for Barbados between 1975 and 1982, is there to guide them as coach.

When I first went to Holland no one really showed any interest in cricket. There were a lot of foreign players in Holland because the locals were not good at that time, he said.

But now it has changed. It's the other way around. We've got 95 per cent of Dutch players now. The interest has picked up a lot.

The heavy presence of Holland-born players is emphasised in the composition of the national team's 14-man squad which is climaxing its preparations for the forthcoming International Cricket Council (ICC) Trophy with two practice matches against a Barbados Select XI at Kensington Oval today and tomorrow.

The Dutch squad includes two Pakistan-born players and a New Zealander, but the other 11 were born in Holland, and a few of them have been exposed to English cricket at one level or another.

The most notable one is their captain Roland Lefebvre, a 38-year-old all-rounder who had played county cricket for Somerset and Glamorgan.

I always believe the way to go is to play your own home players as much as possible, said Trotman, who has been Holland's coach for the last four years.

You have to rely on one or two foreign players no disrespect to them, but you've got to build your own team.

Holland, however, have been set back by the late withdrawal of one of their most promising batsmen for the ICC Trophy which is slated for Toronto from June 29 to July 17.

Bastiaan Zuiderent, a 24-year-old right-hander, is currently playing for Sussex in the English County championship. The club is willing to release him for the tournament, but he prefers not to disrupt a season in which he has made his debut first-class hundred.

Even without Zuiderent, Trotman believes the Holland team is more than good enough to finish among the top three among the 24 ICC associate members seeking to qualify for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

We are classified as the favourites, which I don't really like too much, the 46-year-old Trotman said. I prefer to be underdogs, but we've got a good side and we've got a fantastic chance.

Holland had their only previous taste of the World Cup in 1996, but some of the experienced players believe the current side is better.

Trotman, who has also coached South African province Border, has recognised the rising standard of the game in the Dutch country.

It's grown tremendously and a lot of it has to do with the foreign coaches out of Australia and West Indies, he said. The foreign coaches have helped improve the Dutch standard of cricket. It's up to a good standard now.

In recent years, some of the ICC Associate members have made strides. Bangladesh have become the tenth Test-playing nation and Kenya are seeking to join them.

Is Test status also a big priority for Holland?

It's not an immediate goal, Trotman said.

We don't have the population of cricketers to accommodate that situation right now. But we've got the number that we can be very happy with One-Day International status.

The response is not surprising when you consider that the Dutch competitions are mainly in the shorter version of the game.

But the fact that they have as many as four divisions, along with a veterans league, two women's divisions and four Under-18 competitions suggest cricket is really taking off in Holland.

© The Barbados Nation