Not two but five Dutch players will be competing in the World Cup of Darts at the end of June. Is the Netherlands sending two teams to the PDC's yearly nations tournament? No, the reason for the increased number is that three Dutchmen will participate on behalf of another country.
The Netherlands still has just the one team at the World Cup of Darts. Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert will be the pair donning the iconic orange of the Netherlands and will try to capture the first title for the Dutch since 2018. By the way, Van Gerwen and Noppert competed together once before at the World Cup of Darts. After victories over Brazil (5-1) and Spain (2-0), they reached the quarter-finals. In the last eight, however, Germans Max Hopp and Gabriel Clemens surprisingly were too strong after a decisive pairs match.
The three other 'Dutch' players at the event will be Jeffrey de Graaf, Cor Dekker and Jules van Dongen. This trio will however, travel to Frankfurt for the World Cup of Darts in the colours of different nations. They will represent Sweden, Norway and the United States, respectively.
De Graaf has been darting under the Swedish flag since 2023. He was born in 1990 in the Dutch municipality of Den Helder. In 2018, however, De Graaf moved to Sweden because his girlfriend is from the Scandinavian country. De Graaf, who impressively made it to the third round at the past World Darts Championships, will team with Oskar Lukasiak. The latter reached the quarter-finals in Frankfurt last year with Dennis Nilsson.
Van Dongen will wear the typical American Stars and Stripes on his jersey for the third consecutive year. 'The Dutch Dragon' has been a resident of the United States for over a decade and has been darting under the American flag for several years. Van Dongen has yet to gain a permanent teammate over the years. After making his debut in 2022 with Danny Baggish, he got Leonard Gates alongside him last year and this time around it will be Danny Lauby Jr. who will play alongside Van Dongen.
Dekker neanwhile is making his return to the World Cup of Darts after eight years. He made his debut at the Nations tournament in 2016 with Norway. Together with Robert Wagner, they then won 5-2 over Gibraltar in the first round. Dekker then got to play a singles match against darts icon Gary Anderson, who had trouble, before eventually beating Dekker 4-3. It is not yet known with whom Dekker will form the Norwegian team this year.
Oskar Lukasiak will be joining Tour Card holder Jeffrey de Graaf on the Swedish team for the World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt. However the other Nordic and Baltic World Cup teams are yet to be decided, so don't forget to register for the PDCNB weekend in Finland later this month!
