Player Points System – Open Questions

Below are a series of as-yet unanswered questions put to KNCB regarding the new Player Points System for the 2026 Topklasse, Hoofdklasse and Eersteklasse. This post will be updated if and when a response is forthcoming.

  • The document consistently (and erroneously) conflates “NL passport holder” and “Eligible to play for the Netherlands”, and seems to assume that any player falling into the latter category would also be an EU passport holder. Why?
  • Consequently, neither the table nor the flowchart make any provision for a non-EU passport holder who is eligible to represent the Netherlands. Given that there are a substantial number of such players (including current and former Netherlands internationals) this would seem to be a significant oversight. How is it to be resolved?
  • The document makes a distinction between EU passport holders and non-EU passport holders. What is the competitive/development rationale for this choice, and how is it legal under the Algemene Wet Gelijke Behandeling?
  • The category of “First Class & List A” is followed by the qualifier “(Full Member)”. Is this intended to exclude the two List A competitions hosted by Associate boards? If so, why, and under which category do those competitions fall?
  • The document refers repeatedly to a class of cricket labelled “Provincial A-Level”, but this term is not adequately defined anywhere, and is not a term used by the ICC, the ACS, nor any recognised cricket body that I’m aware of. What does it mean, where does it originate, and how is one expected to discern which competitions do or do not fall under this label?
  • The document makes reference to “foreign club cricket competition”. How is this defined, and how can it plausibly be assessed/enforced?
  • The flowchart also includes “School C” under this category, though the table does not. Assuming this means schools cricket, how is this delimited, and does the flowchart take precedence over the table?
  • The document refers to “Representative U19 Competitions” but does not define this term. Is it intended to refer specifically to international under 19s cricket? If so, how is this classified? YODI/YTest/YT20I? Or any Under 19 team representing an ICC member?
  • The same section declares that [Representative U19] “Players without a NL passport are classified as international.” A plain and literal reading of this provision would place players who have played U19 cricket for a non-ODI Associate member in a higher category than those who had represented the same member in senior internationals. Is this an error? If so, what is the correct provision? If not, what is the reasoning there?
  • The Dutch Pro-Series is “classified as List A provincial cricket. A level.” This is a jumble of words used elsewhere to label two different categories. What is the intended meaning?
  • The term “Homegrown Player” is defined as a player “who has been registered and active with the same club since his sixteenth birthday or earlier.” This would seem to require continuous and uninterrupted registration, contradicting 5.8 (Returning Players). Which applies? And particularly, which would apply to a player that did not make a senior debut in the THE for the club where he played youth cricket before going abroad or switching to another Dutch club?
  • The term “Late Starting Player” is defined as “a player who never played cricket and becomes a member of a club after his 16th birthday”, the natural reading of which would imply a player taking up the game for the first time. However, the look-back period for these regulations is only 3 years. Would, for example, a former Test player who has not played competitive cricket in the past three years fall under this category? If not why not?
  • Club of origin is defined as the club for which the player debuts in THE, not necessarily where he played e.g. youth cricket. A plain reading of the text would in fact define e.g. Janneman Malan’s club of origin as Voorburg. Is this intentional?
  • The term “Club of Origin” might be taken to imply that players playing for such a club can be counted as “Homegrown”, but the phrase “Club of Origin” in fact appears nowhere else in the document. What is the actual purpose of supplying this definition?
  • Section 5.1 (Player Categorisation) states that players switching clubs or debuting in the THE should be placed in the category that attracts the highest points value. The effect of this is to make the category of “Expat Player” entirely redundant, as any player with (recent?) competitive cricket experience would fall into a higher category, and any player without would presumably be a “late starter” or “homegrown”. Is this an error?
  • If the category of “Expat Player” is not redundant but rather intended to be prior to and supersede higher points-value categories, why is it applicable only to non-EU passport holders?
  • The definition of “Expat Player” requires said player to be in full time work or study, thus excluding e.g. asylum-seekers, home-makers, caregivers, dependent minors, etc, etc. Is this intentional? If so, why?
  • Have these regulations been reviewed by a lawyer?