Paul Nicholson has launched a scathing assessment of Belgium’s World Cup of Darts squad, claiming the nation’s current best player, Kim Huybrechts, has been wrongly omitted. Speaking on the Love the Darts Podcast, the former professional predicted that Mike De Decker and Dimitri Van den Bergh will fail to progress from Group B in Frankfurt.
Belgium, seeded sixth, faces Hong Kong and Slovenia in the group stage. But Nicholson believes the selection committee made a major error by leaving out Huybrechts, who represented Belgium at the World Cup between 2012 and 2024. “The best player in Belgium is not in the team. That’s Kim Huybrechts,” Nicholson stated firmly. “He’s got the experience, he’s got the form, and you know he’s got the firepower and he doesn’t mind going toe to toe with people. I know that from personal experience.” Huybrechts’ absence is due to the selection being based on world rankings, where his position was not high enough.
Nicholson highlighted the poor form of both De Decker and Van den Bergh. De Decker has yet to win a single match on the European Tour this season, has crashed out in the first round of a tournament eight times in a row, and has reached only one ProTour quarterfinal all year. Van den Bergh, a two-time major winner, has not won a match at a televised ranking event since last year’s UK Open. “I think Mike De Decker has still got an awful lot to offer this sport and it might have to be a little bit further down the track,” Nicholson said. “I’m one of Mike’s biggest fans. I think he’s got incredible technique. I think he’s really solid in mind. I just don’t think his game is cohesive at the minute, both psychologically and maybe with his equipment. It seems like ever since he moved to a new manufacturer, it just hasn’t been quite there for whatever reason.”
Nicholson placed the responsibility squarely on De Decker and Van den Bergh to prove they are the rightful flag bearers. “So, it’s the responsibility of the Belgians to go up and say, this is why we’re ranked higher than that guy. We can put the shirt on and we can put something together, not just to reignite them individually, but they could work so well together in this tournament, that they could actually change their careers after this.” Despite that possibility, Nicholson does not expect Belgium to top the group. “They could do incredible things, but they’re going to have to do something that I believe that they won’t, and that’s top this group. I don’t think they win this group.”
