England’s tour of Netherlands postponed to May 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic
England's tour of Netherlands has been postponed to May 2022
|England cricket board and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association have mutually agreed to postpone the ODI series, which was originally planned to be played in May 2021, to May 2022 due to Covid-19 uncertainties. This series would have been Netherlands' first in the World Cup Super League.
On Friday, the England cricket board and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association announced that the ODI series between the nations, which was scheduled for the end of May 2021, has been postponed to May 2022 due to the continuing uncertainty regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. Along with the pandemic, playing the series in front of a limited or no audience would not have been a viable prospect for The Royal Dutch Cricket Association (KNCB), who had their last big cricket event in 2004 with India, Pakistan and Australia touring the nation.
This series would have been Netherlands' first in the World Cup Super League, with the one scheduled against Pakistan in 2020 cancelled due to the pandemic. High-Performance Manager of KNCB, Roland Lefebvre, thanked ECB for their understanding of the situation.
"The KNCB is disappointed for the Super League fixtures against England to be postponed. These matches would have been the biggest event in the Netherlands since the Videocon series in 2004 when India, Pakistan and Australia visited VRA Amsterdam," Lefebvre said as quoted by Cricbuzz.
"The prospect of playing the World Champions in a full house is exciting, and we look forward to welcoming the team back in 2022. We are very grateful for the cooperation we received from the ECB to make this happen."
Managing director of England's men's cricket, Ashley Giles, hoped that the ‘historic series’ goes according to the plan in 2022.
"It is disappointing that we are unable to play the Netherlands in May in what would be England's first visit to Holland. Hopefully, with the prospect of crowds returning to sport soon, we can rearrange the three matches in 2022 and showcase international cricket to capacity crowds. I am sure many fans will want to travel across from England and be part of this historic ODI series," Giles said.
