Preview 2025 TK – Page 3

2025 Preview 4: Voorburg and HCC

Rod Lyall 19/04/2025

Champions in 2024 and defeated semi-finalists last year, Voorburg will be delighted to welcome back South African Gavin Kaplan, who topped the season’s batting averages with 701 runs at 77.89, hitting four centuries and three fifties in just ten innings.

Given that he also chipped in with 15 wickets at 18.67, he had a strong claim to be the overseas player of the year, and there is no doubt that the Westvliet club missed him sorely in their last five games, when he had returned to South Africa.

He will be joined this year by two Zimbabweans, 30-year-old international Carl Mumba and former Under-19 international Patient Charumbira, the latter making the short journey from HCC.

Mumba, who played 19 times for Zimbabwe across the three formats between 2016 and 2021, will reinforce an already strong Voorburg pace attack, which includes Viv Kingma – whose appearances may well be limited by national team commitments – and the steadily-improving Mees van Vliet, even if fitness problems continue to make Ryan Klein a useful off-spinner rather than one of the competition’s most effective pace bowlers.

Charumbira, too, is a more than useful medium-pacer, as well as a hard-hitting lower order batter.

Another acquisition is 20-year-old Australian Henry Melville, who plays for Melbourne University in the Victorian Premier competition.

A wicketkeeper and useful middle-order bat, Melville will perhaps be competing for the gloves with young Cedric de Lange when skipper Noah Croes is absent on national team duty; gifted behind the stumps, De Lange’s batting showed signs of growing maturity last summer, and with a maiden Topklasse half-century behind him he will be looking to establish his place in the side.

Voorburg have also picked up former national Under-18 captain Udit Nashier, who moves to Westvliet from VRA, where he only bowled six overs of spin in the Topklasse last season and, notably, posted his maiden half-century against the club he is now joining.

The only departure is Stijn de Leede, who has decided to try his luck with Hoofdklasse club Quick Haag this season.

With Michael Levitt (when fit and available), Nehaan Gagani and Nirav Kulkarni in the batting line-up, and Laurens Boissevain and youngsters like Alejo Nota and Tom de Leede also in the squad, Voorburg have enviable strength in depth, which will likely be a crucial factor given the club’s strong representation in the national set-up.

Skipper Croes recognises that restricted availability creates uncertainties, but believes that his squad is strong enough to challenge for a place in the top four, and possibly even head the table in this year’s playoffless competition format.

‘It will be a really interesting year with a format which is very positive for Dutch cricket,’ he says, ‘and the exposure which our younger players gained last year will stand us in good stead.

‘It’s really cool that Gavin Kaplan is coming back, and Henry Melville is a genuine problem-solver, who will adapt well to changing playing surfaces.’

There are big changes at HCC, with none of last year’s three overseas back this year, and an influx of locally-based players to join a new brace of imports.

One of the latter is New Zealander Oliver White, who had the tricky task of replacing Kaplan at Voorburg at the end of last season, but is now back for a full campaign at De Diepput.

Now back with Northern Districts, where he started his career, the left-arm spinning allrounder will be joined at HCC by another member of the Northern Districts squad, South African-born pace bowler Josh Brown.

Brown has broken into ND’s Plunkett Shield side over the Southern Hemisphere summer, and will doubtless slot into the new-ball spot vacated by Adam Leonard.

Equally significant for HCC’s prospects, though, is likely to be the return of Clayton Floyd and Henrico Venter from VRA and HBS respectively: Floyd had a relatively quiet season with VRA last year, but HCC will be hoping that he can return to the sort of form which saw him claim 37 Topklasse wickets in 2021 at a cost of 7.32 apiece.

Venter, who last played for HCC in 2023, has accumulated 60 Topklasse wickets for his three clubs, but had limited opportunities at HBS last year and will be looking for a more significant role following his return to De Diepput.

Other arrivals include youngsters Mark Wolfe and Dinand van Hommel, transferring from ACC and Hermes-DVS respectively, and South African Jayden Peskin, who was Western Province CC’s Most Improved Player for the 2023/24 season.

These seven join the club’s established players, again led by Boris Gorlee, who like Tonny Staal enjoyed only intermittent success last year. Both will be looking to recover something of the form which took them into the Dutch national side a couple of years ago, and which contributed significantly to the side’s Topklasse championship run in 2023.

The same applies to the middle-order contribution with the bat by allrounder Hidde Overdijk, although he remains a very effective member of the pace attack, having claimed 15 wickets last year at 15.88.

Among the younger brigade, Teun Kloppenburg, after a very productive introduction to the top flight in which he hit three successive half-centuries, had a poor run towards the end of last season and will be looking to get back into his best form, and Shirsak Banerjee will also hope to consolidate his place in the top order.

Seamer Teun Leijer’s 17 wickets in his first season at De Diepput was a very promising start, and he will again form part of a traditionally-strong HCC seam attack, alongside Brown, Overdijk and Daniel Crowley, the leading wicket-taker last year with 22 at 25.27.

2025 Preview 3: Hermes and HBS

Rod Lyall 15/04/2025

Newly promoted last season, Hermes-DVS Schiedam could be thoroughly satisfied with their position in the top six, and will be looking to consolidate that achievement in the new campaign.

They will be aided in that endeavour by the acquisition of wicketkeeper-batter Asad Zulfiqar from Punjab-Ghausia – thus splitting up the triplets for the first time since they made their debut for ACC at the age of 15 back in 2012 – and seamer Sahil Kothari, back after a season with ACC.

The arrival of Zulfiqar at Sportpark Harga might mean relatively few games this season for 50-year-old Nick Statham, who kept wicket regularly last year and who needs just three more matches to become the second player to post 500 in the top flight – only René Schoonheim, with 583, has played more.

Kothari, who claimed 18 wickets last year in ACC’s unsuccessful battle to stay up, joins a seam attack which also includes skipper Sebastiaan Braat, brothers Olivier and Ralph Elenbaas, and Niels Woermeijer

Of last year’s overseas, CP Klijnhans will not be returning, but Ashley Ostling is back to resume his prolific opening partnership with Spanish international Daniel Doyle Calle.

Ostling’s 526 runs last season at 43.83 was a big factor in the side’s success, while Doyle’s strike rate of 121.43 put him at the top of the table of quick-scoring batters.

National team commitments will presumably again restrict the appearances of Aryan Dutt, who only played four 50-over matches for Hermes last season, but the spin department will be strengthened by the advent of 24-year-old leg-spinner and Belgian international Dewald Dumon, who played ten T20Is for Belgium last year.

Dumon had a successful season with Eerste Klasse (third-division) club Hercules Utrecht in 2023, claiming 34 wickets at an average of 17.00, and he could form a useful partnership with Dutt when they are both available.

Others who will be vying for a place in the side include another Belgian-based player in Abdul Jabar Jabarkhail, joined this year by leg-spinner Hikmat Jabarkhail, youngsters Sam van Giezen and Rinck van Dam, both of whom made a couple of appearances last year, and such seasonedcampaigners as Zaffar Chaudhary and Roy Numair.

Captain Braat is optimistic about the new campaign: ‘Having gained sixth place in our first year back,’ he says, ‘we’ll be looking for a top-four place this time, although we realise that other clubs have been building their squads over the winter as well.

‘It will be a tough competition, but we have a broad choice of players and we are certainly hoping to build on last year’s achievements.’

HBS Craeyenhout, too, can look back on a relatively successful 2024, but like Hermes will doubtless be conscious of this season’s expansion of the relegation zone.

Tayo Walbrugh, who often skippered the side last year in the absence of Wesley Barresi, takes over the captaincy on a regular basis, and be supported by a strong contingent of fellow South Africans on and off the field.

Lehan Botha returns after making a valuable contribution last season, and will be joined by countrymen Jayden Rossouw and Sellin de Beer, the latter a late replacement for the injured Ruan Terblanche.

Rossouw is a tall off-spinner who has played for both Loughborough University and the Ashby Hastings club in Leicestershire, while de Beer, a graduate of Mpumalanga’s cricket academy, is a young allrounder.

But perhaps the most striking feature of the Crows’ team list is the presence of both Heino Kuhn and Roelof van der Merwe, who bring enormous coaching experience, not to mention quite a bit of the on-field variety to their new roles.

Kuhn, who played four Tests and seven T20Is for South Africa, averaged 56.34 with the bat in four seasons with ACC between 2011 and 2023, and although at 41 he may not appear regularly in the Topklasse side, his presence behind the scenes will be invaluable, not least for promising young wicketkeeper Martijn Scholte and his rival for the gloves, Lucas del Bianco.

And the same is true of Van der Merwe, a few months younger than Kuhn, whose international career with the Proteas extended to 13 ODIs and the same number of T20Is, followed by 18 ODIs and 47 T20Is for the Netherlands as well as very successful stints with Somerset and a dozen T20 franchise teams around the world.

Famously competitive, he has had a hand in several of the Dutch men’s most significant victories, and he is likely to be a powerful force at Craeyenhout.

The attack will again be spearheaded by Botha and, subject to national team commitments, Kyle Klein, whose outstanding start to his international career may well make him one of the first names on Dutch coach Ryan Cook’s team-list.

They will be backed up by De Beer, Benno Boddendijk and, possibly, by Del Bianco, who shed the gloves towards the end of last season and revealed some lively pace and genuine aggression with the ball.

With the spin of Rossouw and Julien de Mey the Crows will have a well-balanced attack, while the top order, with new captain Tayo Walbrugh and his predecessor Wesley Barresi, looks to be good for plenty of runs.

Walbrugh is delighted that he can look for greater involvement of several of Craeyenhout’s old hands, like explosive opener Tobias Visée, seamer Ferdi Vink, and middle-order batter Navjit Singh, all of whom are likely to be available more regularly.

‘The boys are really excited to get going, and it’s an honour and a privilege to have Heino and Roelof as part of the set-up.

We know that they, like Kyle Klein, will have big commitments with the national side, but they will really make a difference.

‘We want to play a quality, positive brand of cricket, and we will need to strike the right balance of youth and experience to make HBS a force, not just this season, but for five or ten years to come.’

2025 Preview 2: Sparta and VOC

Rod Lyall 12/04/2025

No club, perhaps, has undergone as great a transformation over the winter as Sparta 1888, who may find themselves facing an even sharper battle than usual against a return to the Hoofdklasse.

Last year’s leading overseas, Riley Mudford, is not returning, while Will Clarke has moved to Kent club side Bromley and Cameron Fraser, who took 29 wickets last year, has also departed.

Among local players, Faizan Bashir has moved to lower-division club Royal Punjab, and Sandeep Sardha has decided to call it a day.

On the credit side, the Capelle club has signed 30-year-old South African Kyle Klesse and 18-year-old Australian Lukas Boorer; both are wicketkeepers and hence may be vying for Mudford’s place behind the stumps, but Boorer in particular has had a great season with Tuggeranog Valley in the ACT League, including a recent, unbeaten 111 against Western District, and both are likely to command a place in Sparta’s all-too-often fragile top order.

They will also continue to enjoy the services of New Zealander Sam Ferguson, back for a third season, and South African Juandre Scheepers, who topped the side’s run-scoring last year with 419 at 52.38 as well as bowling some useful spells.

Ferguson, moreover, will be joined by elder brother Tim, since both are now living and working in the Netherlands.

Having greatly missed former internationals Mudassar Bukhari and Ahsan Malik from the attack last season, skipper Joost-Martijn Snoep is delighted at the prospect of Malik being more regularly available this time round.

His ability to claim early wickets will add cutting power to a pace attack which also includes Snoep himself, who has now claimed 105 Topklasse wickets at a very respectable 21.92, and the dangerous Khalid Ahmadi, not to mention brothers Max and Tom Hoornweg.

Spin will again be provided by Umar Baker and Manminder Singh, both useful lower-order batters into the bargain.

It is, however, the batting which has often been Sparta’s Achilles heel in the past, and Snoep will be looking for more substantial contributions from Shaquille Martina and young Prithvi Balwantsingh.

Snoep remains optimistic: ‘There’s no team we can’t beat on our day,’ he says, ‘and we’re going to try to win every game.

‘If we play a whole season of good cricket and end up in the bottom two or three or whatever it is now, we’ll be at peace with that.’

VOC Rotterdam similarlycontinue to be something of an enigma, a team which consistently contrives to be less than the sum of its parts.

Compensating for the loss of Edwards and O’Dowd last year by signing four overseas players, they again failed to make it into the top six, although their overseas foursome did top their batting averages and they were handicapped to a degree by a mid-season injury to allrounder Jock McKenzie.

Of the four, only Dutch passport holder Jason van der Meulen is back this season, and he will be looking to build on a promising first season with the club.

He will be joined by 21-year-old New Zealander Scott Janett, who has just broken into the Canterbury side, and the South African Christiaan Oberholzer, who had an outstanding season with Walton on Thames in the Surrey Championship last year.

Both bat right-handed and are leg-break exponents, so the Bloodhounds will be looking to their local talent to supply an effective seam attack.

They will hope for further progress from Aaditt Jain, still only 17, and Roman Harhangi, both of whom did enough last year to suggest that they are genuine prospects, Harhangi’s 5-33 against Sparta one of the side’s best performances of the season.

The two youngsters were well backed up by the veteran Jelte Schoonheim, who has the knack of breaking partnerships as well as playing useful knocks in the lower middle order, while spin is again provided by Aadditt Jain’s elder brother Arnav, just back from captaining the European Under-23 side at Lord’s, Asief Hoseinbaks, last season’s leading wicket-taker for the Bloodhounds, and Ramdas Upadhyaya.

But with Janett and Oberholzer both purveying their leg-spin, skipper Tim de Kok will not be short of options once the shine has gone off the ball.

As with Sparta, though, the real need is for more consistency from the locally-based batters, and De Kok, who had a very disappointing season by his standards, will be looking to raise his own game as well as hoping for more regular contributions from opener Francois Fourie.

Coach Pierce Fletcher, joined this year by former international Stephan Myburgh, also has a cohort of other players he can draw on, including Mussayab Jamil, who showed some promise in his limited opportunities last season, Rohan Malik, and back-up opener Pieter Recordon.

There is no question that if they can put it all together VOC have the potential to move well clear of those two or three relegation spots.

2025 Preview 1: Kampong and Excelsior

Rod Lyall 09/04/2025

Back in the Topklasse after a two-year absence, Kampong Utrecht will be keen to ensure that their stay in the top flight lasts longer this time than their single, Covid-related season in 2022.

Since then, of course, they have acquired the services of internationals Scott Edwards and Max O’Dowd, and if their commitments with the national side are likely to mean that their appearances for Kampong are limited, they will provide plenty of star quality when they do turn out for their club.

The Utrecht side will also have the benefit of the allround skills of Lorenzo Ingram, who has ended his 11-year, 171-match relationship with Excelsior ’20 Schiedam, in which he contributed 5912 Topklasse runs at 44.79 and claimed 221 wickets at 18.21.

Few overseas players have given such long service so profitably, and he is likely to make a significant contribution to Kampong’s drive to stay up; with two automatic relegation spots this year thanks to the KNCB’s reorganisation of the competitions and the side finishing eighth facing a play-off against the Hoofdklasse champions, the safety of a mid-table position will be every club’s first ambition.

The Maarschalkerweerd club will also welcome Western Australian Lane Berry, who had a very successful season with VOC Rotterdam in 2023, when Edwards and O’Dowd were his team-mates, and Kampong will be hoping he can replicate the form which earned him 674 runs at 51.85 for the Bloodhounds.

Also coming from Australia is 25-year-old allrounder Lachlan Bangs, whose left-arm pace will add some fizz to an attack which includes captain Alex Roy, last year’s leading wicket-taker Shashank Kumar, Kirtan Nana, Saurabh Zalpuri and youngster Gert Swanepoel.

Another important contribution to their batting, alongside those of Berry and Ingram, will likely come from South African-born opener Damien van den Berg, whose 566 runs at 35.38 last season made a significant contribution to their Hoofdklasse title and earned him call-ups for the Pro Series and the Dutch A side.

He and O’Dowd could form a strong opening partnership, with wicketkeeper Ratha Alphonse, who returned from HCC last season and also played a significant part in the side’s promotion, a potential stand-in when O’Dowd is on international duty.

With Pierre Jacod and the improving Tushar Sharma providing spin options the core squad looks more than strong enough to challenge for that mid-table spot, and in a season in which reserve capacity is likely to be a crucial factor Kampong have enough talent and experience to go into the campaign with a fair degree of confidence.

With the loss of not only Ingram but also of Victor Lubbers, who returns to Salland after one season at Thurlede, Excelsior ’20 have made two of the most attractive signings of the winter in the person of former South African Test opener Raynard van Tonder and the 25-year-old Belgo-Zimbabwean Antum Naqvi.

Van Tonder, now 26, has had a great first-class season with North West, hitting a century and three fifties in eight innings, and he should bring greater solidity to an Excelsior line-up which showed a disturbing tendency to crumble last year.

The only issue facing the Schiedam club is whether his availability will be affected by his possible selection for South Africa A.

Few players have a more intriguing CV than Naqvi, who was born in Brussels but who grew up in Australia before moving to Zimbabwe, where he made his first-class debut for the Mid West Rhinos in January 2023, scoring centuries in his first two first-class innings.

A right-handed bat and off-break bowler, his allround skills should be invaluable, and Excelsior will be hoping that he proves an outstanding replacement for the departed Ingram.

The attack will again be spearheaded by Australian James Ralston, whose 38 wickets at 14.84 last season was a crucial factor in the side’s avoidance of relegation; not only did his ability to rip the top off opposing batting line-ups give Excelsior a vital edge, but his new-ball partnership with the rapidly-improving Jens Blankestein made a real contribution to the Schiedam club’s future.

Excelsior, too, have joined the movement towards a larger cohort of overseas players, a fourth member of their squad being the South Australian Sam Rahaley.

Part of the Kensington side which has just won the state’s first-grade competition, Rahaley will slot into the middle order at Thurlede, while his off-breaks will provide another option once Ralston, Blankestein and left-armer Niels Etman have exploited the new ball.

The locally-produced contingent is not greatly different from that which brought the trophy to Thurlede three times in four seasons between 2016 and 2019, but it’s fair to say that that youthful cohort has not lived up to the promise its showed back then, and they have greatly missed the leadership of Tom Heggelman in the middle.

The news, therefore, that he will be more involved in coaching this year will be welcomed on Excelsior’s side of Schiedam.

With a plentiful supply of Kroesens – batter and leg-spinners Joost and Luuk, and pace man Gijs – and Van Troosts – pace bowler and useful lower middle-order batter Rens, and emerging batter Stan – there will be some strong competition for a spot in the first-choice eleven.

Skipper Roel Verhagen and his fellow-opener Tim Etman had modest seasons last year, but with less pressure on them given the rejigged top order they will be looking to reassert themselves this time round, and with likely few disruptions from international call-ups Excelsior should have a decent crack at one of those coveted mid-table positions.