The Netherlands will find out today (Monday) whether star batsman, Bas Zuiderent, will return to the Dutch camp for the remainder of their Six Nations Challenge campaign which started in Windhoek, Namibia yesterday.

After hitting 86 in the Netherlands' one run loss to Lancashire in Cape Town early last week, Zuiderent returned to England to attend the funeral of Sussex team-mate and friend, Umer Rashid with the full blessing of the Nederlandse Cricket Bond. Rashid drowned tragically, attempting to rescue his brother, Burhan, in Concord Falls, Grenada, on a pre-season trip with Sussex.

NCB President, Rene Van Ierschot, said whether Zuiderent would be able to return to southern Africa in time to take part in the latter part of the team's Six Nations Challenge campaign would be dictated by whether he can get a flight in time to make the trip worthwhile.

Mr. Van Ierschot said Zuiderent is eager to rejoin his team-mates and the Dutch management is just as keen to renew acquaintances with captain Roland Lefebvre sidelined and several players taking the field with injuries.

In the first round of matches yesterday, the Netherlands escaped from a disastrous 95-8 yesterday to steal a win against Canada, eventually finishing with 211 before dismissing Canada for 195.

Home team Namibia is understood to have crashed to a heavy defeat against Sri Lanka A while Kenya totalled 260 before dismissing Zimbabwe A for 249.

In pre-tournament warm-up news, veteran international, Tim de Leede, joined Ziuderant amongst the runs against Lancashire with a half century against Lancashire and then backed it up by taking 5-39 during the Netherlands' win over a President's XI the following day. The other outstanding performer for the Netherlands was Nick Statham, who struck 61.

Netherlands lost its final match, collapsing to 147 all-out batting first, which Western Province overtook losing three wickets.

The Six Nations Challenge is an integral part of the International Cricket Council's High Performance Programme, aimed at improving the playing standards of the four non-Test playing countries, Kenya, the Netherlands, Namibia, and Canada, ahead of next year's World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Namibian captain, Deon Kotze and Canadian coach, Jeff Thomas, praised the motives behind the Six Nations Challenge, with Thomas further extolling the virtue of the High Performance Programme enabling the Canadians valuable pre-World Cup time in South Africa.

"The benefit is to see how much work we have to do (before the World Cup). Obviously if we are getting badly beaten by Kenya then we know we have a hell of a lot of work to do before we play a side like Australia," Kotze said.

Queensland based Thomas concurred. "All games will be tough and it will be a very good gauge of where we are at the moment."

The Canadians arrived in South Africa the Sunday before last, and have played two matches against Warwickshire and Northamptonshire.

The team of mainly West Indian born Canadian citizens has been bolstered by the inclusion of six players, including captain, Joe Harris, who all missed the recent Americas Cup in Argentina.

Harris, along with former Victorian off spinner, John Davison, opener Desmond Chumney and paceman Davis Joseph, were all a part of the World Cup qualifying squad from last year.

Meanwhile, Namibia's batsmen, particularly JB Burger, have been warming up nicely in matches against a visiting South African Country Districts XI.

Burger, in the first of three one day matches, has probably created some sort of record for a limited overs match with 219 from approximately 160 balls, including 12 sixes and 14 fours.

The Namibian camp had identified batting as a weakness at the end of its UCB Bowl campaign and intensive work from Western Province coach, Eric Simon, would appear to have been beneficial, albeit against a limited SA Country Districts attack.

In three matches, which Namibia have all won easily, Sarel Burger and Gavin Murgatroyd made 90s, opener Riaan Walters hitting 75 and Marius Vandermerwe unbeaten on 61, both in the last match.

Namibia will be without its young firebrands, Burton van Rooi (injured) and Stefan Swanepoel (study leave) but on home turf should be formidable.

Kenya, despite a last minute captaincy reshuffle, with Maurice Odumbe vacating the leadership role, citing family responsibilites, come into the tournament as possible favourites.

Perhaps their main concern will be whether the leadership affects the form of non-Test cricket's best batsman, Steve Tikolo.

Against potential second favourite, Sri Lanka A, recently, Tikolo, hit a century and two fifties in the 2-1 series win in Sri Lanka. Opener Ravinder Shah also hit a hundred as well as a fifty.

At the time of compiling this article, the composition of the Sri Lanka 'A' squad was unknown.

The remaining team, Zimbabwe 'A', which performed credibly in the recent UCB Bowl, includes Test players, Henry Olonga, Trevor Gripper and Dirk Viljoen.

The schedule

Sunday 7 April - Round One
Canada v Holland
Sri Lanka v Namibia
Zimbabwe v Kenya

Monday 8 April - Round Two
Canada v Sri Lanka
Namibia v Kenya
Holland v Zimbabwe

Tuesday 9 April - Rest Day

Wednesday 10 April - Round Three
Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka
Canada v Namibia
Holland v Kenya

Thursday 11 April - Round Four
Canada v Zimbabwe
Holland v Namibia
Kenya v Sri Lanka

Friday 12 April - Rest Day

Saturday 13 April - Round Five
Canada v Kenya
Holland v Sri Lanka
Namibia v Zimbabwe

Sunday 14 April - Final

© ICC 2002