Netherlands team set to tour South Africa to face SA20 teams and begin preparations for 2024 T20 World Cup

The Netherlands cricket team is set to tour South Africa in the new year to play against SA20 franchises, aiming to kickstart their preparations for the 2024 T20 World Cup. USA and West Indies will host the tournament between June 4 and 30 next year.

West Indies, USA, Australia, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ireland, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Nepal, Uganda and Oman are the teams to qualify so far.

The Netherlands will square off against SA20 teams like Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Paarl Royals and MI Cape Town. The Dutch are going to play two games each against the Sunrisers and Royals and one match against the MI side.

They are also like warm-up games for their opponents before the SA20 2024 season begins on January 10. After facing the SA20 franchises, the Dutch team will also play the Lions in Johannesburg before concluding their tour.

Netherlands 16-man squad for the tour:

Scott Edwards (captain), Wesley Barresi, Shariz Ahmad, Noah Croes, Daniel Doram, Aryan Dutt, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Viv Kingma, Kyle Klein, Ryan Klein, Michael Levitt, Paul van Meekeren, Teja Nidamanuru, Max O’Dowd, Vikram Singh, Saqib Zulfiqar.

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Netherlands beat South Africa and Bangladesh in the 2023 World Cup

The Netherlands displayed good fighting spirit in the 2023 World Cup, which concluded last month. They managed to cause a huge upset by beating one of the stronger teams in the tournament, South Africa, without much trouble. The Scott Edwards-led side also beat Bangladesh but still ended up at the bottom of the points table.

They showed glimpses of their potential and competed with top teams but could not sustain high intensity for longer periods. The Dutch team did get some much-needed exposure, playing against elite teams through the tournament, which will help them improve their overall performance. Scott Edwards reflected on his team's 2023 World Cup campaign after their last match against India and said:

"We played two good games of cricket and gave ourselves opportunities in other games which we'd have liked to win. A little bit of a tricky one to say where we were compared to where we wanted to be. We were pretty confident with the style we played. Coming into the tournament, we knew it was going to be a tough tournament. We are a very young side, a lot of young guys in the set-up, it is about growth for us."