Danielle Hazell sees bright future in Sterre Kalis; hopes the Dutch returns next year

Northern Diamonds coach Danielle Hazell heaped praise on Netherlands batter Sterre Kalis and hopes that the youngster will return back next year. The 21-year-old had the worst possible start in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy earlier this year before finishing off with three consecutive half-centuries.



“Naturally, the start she made was getting to her,” said Hazell. “And she wanted to train more, she wanted to hit more. We had a few chats with her along the lines of, ‘Don’t worry too much, these things don’t last forever’.



The right-hander didn’t get to bat in the first match before three consecutive ducks followed putting her morale down. However, Kalis came back strongly with scores of 87, 55 not out and 55 in the next three games to finish the tournament with 197 runs from seven games at an average of 39.40.



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“She was hitting them really well in the nets, and sometimes your luck is just out,” she said. “We always knew it would come good for her in the end, and she did really well. Three fifties in a row, that was fantastic for her and us.”



“She showed a lot of resilience because it can be tough when you’re in a new team in a new country with people forming opinions of you. But she always turned up to training with a smile on her face and got on with it. She got her rewards in the end,” added Hazell, whose Diamonds finished runners-up to Southern Vipers losing by 38 runs in the final.



To add to her brilliant tournament, the Dutch middle-order batter has been nominated for the ICC Women’s Associate Cricketer of the Decade award. The nomination comes in after her brilliant performance with the bat in the 2018 T20 World Cup Qualifier event, where Kalis finished on top of the batting charts with 231 runs.



She continued her form next year too hitting a majestic 76-ball unbeaten 126 as an opener against Germany, which remains joint third-highest in T20Is alongside Australian captain Meg Lanning. Hazell said Kalis has a bright future ahead.



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“She’s got a very big future ahead of her,” said Hazell. “She showed us some real promise, and she’s keen to stay involved with the Diamonds, and we want to support her in the future. We don’t know how COVID and Brexit are going to impact things, but we’d love to keep her involved in our system.”



Kalis came into Diamonds’ attention through club Director of Cricket James Carr, who has strong links with Netherlands Cricket. Both the player and coach have been in contact regularly with the former sending her batting videos regularly to her master.



“She will be involved with us this winter, albeit it a lot of it virtually. I keep in touch with her. She’s working with her coaches over in the Netherlands, but she sends me regular videos of her batting. We don’t know how the world is going to start turning, but we’d like to keep her involved. The Netherlands will come first for her, but we’ll see what happens,” Hazell concluded.