The Netherlands Cricket Board (KNCB) have been severely reprimanded for fielding Ryan ten Doeschate, the Essex allrounder, without permission in their European Division 1 Championship match against Scotland. ten Doeschate had not originally been selected in the Netherlands squad for this ODI.
The ICC Europe participating nations agreement states that the process to replace a player in the original 14-man squad requires an application to the event technical committee prior to the match, which was not made. ODI countries were strongly encouraged and given absolute flexibility to play their best side available for the ODIs. However, Netherlands had not selected ten Doeschate in their original 14-man squad, yet still played him.
On learning of their administrative error in not following the correct procedure, the Netherlands management made a retrospective application to replace him. Taking all the facts into account and in the interests of cricket and the tournament, the event technical committee has approved the application.
However, it also issued a severe reprimand to the KNCB and stated that the decision of the committee does not set a precedent for future, and the KNCB should ensure it follows relevant procedures correctly.
The committee also recommended that ICC Europe may consider a financial penalty in line with the other regional policies.
On Thursday, Netherlands were granted exceptional circumstances to replace Daan van Bunge due to illness for their match against Denmark with ten Doeschate being drafted in.The committee looked at all the facts associated with this and determined that there was no link and the two were completely separate issues.