Dutch cricket ventures to a new frontier in maiden New Zealand voyage

Although nearly four centuries have passed since Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand, his adventurous spirit lives on in a new generation of pioneers from the Netherlands - only this time they are traveling for a game of cricket.

For the first time, New Zealand will host a team from beyond the elite world of test-playing nations for an international tour, arranging a one-off Twenty20 with the Dutch on Friday and three one-day internationals between March 29 and April 4.

"This opportunity is arguably once in a lifetime," Netherlands captain Pieter Seelaar, 34, told Reuters.

"I've been playing (since 2005) and never even experienced anything that remotely resembles something like this."

World championship events run by the International Cricket Council (ICC) are usually the only occasions when minnow teams like the Netherlands receive high-level exposure.

Their engagement by New Zealand marks the first time a country in cricket's Anglosphere has hosted a second-tier team for a multi-format tour.

Among the game's other long-established territories, only the West Indies have similarly extended tours for developing sides before, hosting Ireland (2014) and Afghanistan (2017) across white-ball formats before they attained full test status.

"There's no incentive for full members to get associates over and play a series against them," Seelaar said, lamenting the ICC's decision last year to end the home-and-away ODI Super League after the current cycle.

His side is the only non-test nation in the 13-team competition.

"I think our younger players in the squad don't quite realise how special it is that they're going to be part of this series.

"To combat New Zealand in their own conditions, it doesn't get any better as a