Netherlands captain Peter Borren has fired an early warning to the rival sides by saying his side is aiming for nothing less than winning this month's ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2012 which will be played across the five venues from 13-24 March.
Borren, who took one for 31 runs and scored 30 in the Dutch side's four wickets victory over current ICC World Twenty20 champion England in the opening match of the 2009 event at Lords, says: "It is our goal to not only qualify for the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 but to win the qualification tournament outright.
"I believe we now have a side capable of doing that. In the past, maybe we didn't quite have that belief but this is a new team and I think other sides will be surprised to see by our improvement."
He adds: "The Netherlands team is on a rise and improving. Our results over the last year in all the competitions have been encouraging, particularly our season in the Clydesdale Bank 40 League in the English County Championship in the United Kingdom where we played 12 matches and won five and five.
"We have learnt how to win games. I think people can expect to see us a well-organised team in the field.
"We have a varied and disciplined attack with plenty of options available for me as a captain. We have a dangerous batting lineup which is nicely balanced between guys who have the ability to rotate strike effectively and guys who can find the boundary."
29-year-old Borren moved to Netherlands to pursue a career in cricket soon after representing New Zealand in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2002 where he played alongside current New Zealand captain Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder. Since then, he has since played in 49 ODIs, 10 T20Is and 16 first-class matches as a right-handed middle-order batsman and right-arm media-fast bowler.
However, the Dutch faces an uphill task as it will be without the services of Ryan ten Doeschate, the three-time winner of ICC's Associate ODI Player of the Year award. At the time of the qualifying tournament in the UAE, Doeschate will be busy in a domestic Twenty20 tournament in South Africa.
"Any team in world cricket would, of course, love to have a player of Ryan's class in its side. So, he will naturally be missed," admits Borren, adding that the Dutch side was used to playing without him and hoped the other senior players will rise to the occasion and fill the gap left by the phenomenal all-rounder.
"Given his commitments around the world, we are very used to playing without him. If you look at our top five batsmen in Michael Swart, Stephan Myburgh, Tom Cooper, Alexei Kervezee and Wesley Baressi, there should be enough runs there to cover in Ryan's absence," he says.
Netherlands has qualified automatically for this tournament on the basis of having T20I as well as ODI status which it earned in South Africa after finishing in the top six of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2009.
The Dutch side has been seeded third in this month's qualifier and has been bracketed with Afghanistan Canada, PNG, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Denmark and Nepal. It opens its campaign against Canada on the first day of the tournament at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Reviewing his group, Borren says: "We have played reasonably regularly over the years against Afghanistan, Canada and Denmark and used to play a bit against Bermuda. We have a good record against these four sides. Whilst we absolutely respect them and are well aware of their capabilities, I am confident that we have the game to beat them.
"As for PNG, Hong Kong and Nepal, we do not know so much about them. We are going to have to do some early scouting at the tournament and learn how they play. I know that PNG has improved an awful lot and has some very dangerous players, Hong Kong I saw play in its sixes competition where it was excellent in beating major nations. Nepal has always had a very strong U19 side and must now be seeing the benefit of that in the senior ranks.
"These teams have also played quite a bit of T20 cricket and have been successful in qualifying those tournaments to have reached this stage of qualification. They will be very competitive and there will be upsets at this tournament. Whilst we will take no-one lightly, I am confident we have the team to win this group."
Borren says preparing for the tournament was itself a tough challenge due to the freezing winter in the Netherlands. "It has been very cold in the Netherlands over the winter, which makes training and preparing for such a big tournament a real challenge. During that time, the majority of the squad has been working indoors, which is never ideal.
"However, three factors are in our favour in regards to team preparations. Firstly, five of our guys have been playing regularly in the southern hemisphere and will be good to go, secondly we played in the Caribbean T20 tournament in January and thirdly we have a very intensive week of preparation in Cape Town planned prior to the tournament.
"The Netherlands hasn't played an awful lot of Twenty20 in the recent times. However, the makeup of our side means that it is a format which suits us. So, I am comfortable with where we are at."
