Netherlands head coach Andries Jonker has charged that his team’s training setup at the Women’s World Cup is “amateurism of the highest order.”
Jonker’s side is training at the Bay Oval in Tauranga, New Zealand — a converted cricket ground that required up to 500 hours of work to be ready for the Netherlands to use as a base camp.
The Netherlands had previously voiced concerns over the pitch and although plenty of work has been done to ensure it is up to standard, Jonker was not impressed with the result.
“When we arrived here on Wednesday, I thought: ‘What is this now? I will not train on this,'” Jonker said at a press conference. “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.
“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.”
Jonker, whose side has been drawn into Group E alongside the United States, Portugal and Vietnam, said he is concerned about the potential for injuries on the makeshift pitch.
He added: “If you fall on it with your knee or your shoulder, you could have a problem. If you sprint from the grass to that pitch, that is also not good for muscles and tendons that are already under tension. With other exercises we can train around that pitch, but 11 against 11 doesn’t work.”
Though Jonker was far from impressed with the state of the Bay Oval pitch, at least one of his team’s biggest stars seems to have a differing opinion.
Lieke Martens said the pitch looked “amazing,” according to the New Zealand Herald.
“It is a really good pitch. It is a really good area to prepare us for the first game,” Martens added.
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