Netherlands have accused the Women’s World Cup of amateurish organisation as they complained about their training conditions in New Zealand, but they are still using the Bay Oval in Tauranga to prepare for their opening game on Sunday.
Coach Andries Jonker told reporters he feared his players could be injured on the field, which has a hard cricket pitch in the middle, and which the Dutch had asked be taken out months ago.
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“When we arrived here on Wednesday, I thought, ‘now what is this now?’ I will not train on this,” he said of the test cricket venue in the Bay of Plenty area.
“We have raised concerns about the cricket pitch previously, we were promised things and now we are very disappointed and angry. We are not satisfied,” Jonker said.
“We want to play a good first match against Portugal here, we want to have a top preparation, a top tournament and we also consider ourselves a top team. This does not fit. This fits with amateurism of the highest order.”
