Dutch cricketers aim to go places with ABN Amro

Cricket in Netherlands received a major filip with Dutch bank ABN Amro pledging their support to the national team for the next four years leading up to the 2015 World Cup.

The sponsorship agreement between the Royal Dutch Cricket Association and ABN Amro signed in January, is aimed at enabling the Dutch cricketers to increase its participation in top level cricket fixtures around the world, as well as develop high quality training and playing facilities in the Netherlands.

"The bank has been supporting a lot of sports activities in Netherlands such as hockey, golf and tennis. We are very proud to sponsor the Dutch national cricket team which ofcouse internationally have a lot of growing to do. They have lot of ambitions and lot of room to grow. They could also use our sponsoring to grow towards their own ambition," said Rob Broedelet, Country Executive UAE of ABN Amro at a press conference on Tuesday to explain details about their sponsorship.

“ABN Amro is a big name in Holland and around the world. It is a huge thing for Dutch cricket," said Netherlands captain Peter Borren who is the bank's brand ambassador. “We haven’t had this sort of exciting sponsorship opportunity before. We hope to do them proud."

Holland made a winning start at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers being held in UAE by securing a comfortable 42-run victory over Canada in the opening encounter on Tuesday, but lost their second match against Afghanistan by four wickets on Wednesday.
 
“We are glad that in this first game of sponsorship we have managed to come out on top and we hope to do that throughout our time with ABN Amro, specially in this tournament,” he said.
 
The top two teams in the tournament will qualify for the Twenty20 World Cup to be played in Sri Lanka later this year.

Netherland over last couple of years have been consistenlty between ranked between 12 and 14 in one-dayers just behind Ireland trading places with Afghanistan, scotland and occasionally UAE.
 
"They achieved it without a sponsor behind. Keeping in mind this is a small sport in the Netherlands, the impact of Dutch national team beating England in the 2011 World Cup was significant and they have been doing really well in English county competitions," said Nicolas Debaig, Head Strategy and Business Development of ABN Amro.

"We saw a perfect fit between a talented team that was still amateur and our bank which is a great strong brand with strong growth ambition internationally," he added.

With the Dutch national cricket team choosing Dubai as their second home, the sponsors feel they are worthy investment and bankable commodity because of the popularity of the sport in their growing markets of Asia and the Middle East.

"Since the weather in Netherlands is not ideal in winter, with our help they will basically be able to spend extended periods of times in Dubai and also India, singapore and Hong Kong which are areas the bank is present," added Debaig.

Broedelet was hopeful they could arrange official matches between Netherlands and the second string teams of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to help improve their skills.

The partnership also targets the large non-resident Indian and Pakistan clients of the bank for whom the Dutch team will provide unique experiences in the future, according to Rohit Anand, Senior Vice-President, NRI Head Asia and Middle East of ABN Amro.

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