Category: Review Team of the Year

Rod Lyall & Bertus de Jong 04/09/23

RL:  Once again it’s time for us to select our Topklasse Team of the Year. This year we need to specify that the selection is based on performances in the 50-over competition, and once again we will restrict ourselves to two overseas players in the eleven. So, first the openers. Voorburg’s Michael Levitt certainly stands out, with four centuries in his 655 runs, including a fine 102 in the grand final, and there’s a strong case, too, for Vikram Singh of VRA, although it’s true that 155 of his 548 runs came in one extraordinary innings at Craeyenhout. Still, he did make two other hundreds, and on his day he is capable of destroying an attack like nobody else in the Dutch game. Max O’Dowd (VOC), another brutal batterer of bowling, had a comparatively quiet season by his high standards after hammering 186 against ACC, and another honourable mention should go to Shirase Rasool, often Singh’s opening partner at VRA. But I’d go with Levitt and Singh.

BdJ: A fair shout I’d say, in what’s otherwise been a comparatively lean summer for openers the two youngsters certainly stand out. Another shout out is probably due Ratha Alphonse, who played some more than useful innings at the top of the order for his new club, but the numbers aren’t there for him to challenge Singh or Levitt. Fair to say they benefit from Tayo Walbrugh having dropped down the order for HBS, as have the Crows themselves – to the tune of almost 1,000 runs. With 988 at 61.75 Walbrugh topped the runs table by a distance, with Sparta’s Garnet Tarr more than 200 runs behind in second place. Both merit a place in the team of the year top order for my money, even at the cost of both of our overseas slots. Walbrugh’s weight of runs simply can’t be ignored, while Tarr taking the gloves for much of Sparta’s season  saves us an otherwise tricky discussion on the subject of wicketkeepers.

Unless they’re secretly holding Dutch passports, that leaves room for neither VRA’s Johan Smal nor VOC’s Lane Berry, though both comfortably broke the 600-run mark this season. By the same token, ACC’s Heino Kuhn is ruled out despite being in large part responsible for the club’s mid-table finish in what was looking a tough year. Conversely, Voorburg’s Sybrand Engelbrecht is overseas no longer, and his return of 549 runs at 54.9 (coupled with the small matter of captaining his side to the title) certainly gives him a strong claim. Punjab’s Shoaib Minhas and Mohammad Riaz both also finished the season with 50+ averages, but to my mind finished it rather too soon to be considered for inclusion here. If one were minded to include another specialist bat then a case might be made for Scott Edwards, who racked up 509 runs at almost a run-a-ball, or perhaps for VCC’s Musa Ahmad, though his best returns have come in the shorter format this year. I’d be more inclined to go with a genuine all-rounder at here though, and Saqib Zulfiqar’s 534 runs at 44.5 are more than enough to warrant a place in the top six even before considering his 29 wickets.

RL: A top six of Singh, Levitt, Walbrugh, Tarr, Engelbrecht and Saqib Zulfiqar works for me. If we’re going to slip our keeper in as a top-order batter, though, I’d also want to give a shout-out to Voorburg’s Noah Croes, whose 18 catches and seven stumpings was a not inconsiderable factor in their success. (I’d acknowledge, however, that a bowling unit like Voorburg’s is bound to be healthy for any keeper’s statistics.)  If we have room for a bowling all-rounder at number seven, then the choice seems to me to lie between Hidde Overdijk, whose 32 wickets at 20.62 made a big contribution to HCC’s reaching another grand final and who also averaged 24.42 with the bat, and Sikander Zulfiqar of Punjab, who only took 18 wickets but who made 411 runs at 41.10 and played several very significant knocks to keep his side in contention longer than they might otherwise have been. Forced to choose, I’d go for Overdijk, but I’d be happier still if we could find room for both.

BdJ: I’d hesitate to call Sikander a bowling all-rounder at this point, given he’s generally occupied the number four spot for Punjab this season, and while 18 scalps is a decent tally those wickets have come at an average of almost 30 and an economy rate over a run a ball. If we were to go looking for another seam bowling all-rounder, I’d say that Kyle Klein, whose contributions with both bat and ball have been indispensible for HBS, arguably has the strongest case after Overdijk, though not an overwhelming one.

Turning to to the spinners, one name comes pre-printed on the sheet. With 47 wickets at 10.66 Voorburg’s googly-merchant Shariz Ahmad has been instrumental in their title run, his wrist-spin partnership with the more conventional Philippe Boissevain crucial to their near-perfect run through the competition. With Saqib Zulfiqar already inked in there’s little room for another leggie, but two left armers do  stand out among the finger spinners for their parsimony. The evergreen Lorenzo Ingram bowled 120 overs for Excelsior at the cost of just just 383 runs and claimed 26 wickets into the bargain, yet the veteran has been eclipsed this year by fellow West Indian Daniel Doram, the Sint Maartener taking one more wicket while matching Ingram’s economy of 3.13. Right arm off-spinners have had tougher time this season, with the notable exception of VOC’s Arnav Jain. Despite struggling with a shoulder injury Jain took 23 wickets opening the bowling for VOC at an average of just 16 while going for just 3.5 an over, head and shoulders above rival right arm tweakers.

RL:  I’m not sure that Ingram, despite his long and distinguished service with Excelsior, doesn’t still count as overseas, but I completely agree that Doram, in a very different way from Shariz, has been a stand-out spinner this season. If we include these two spinners and Overdijk as a fast-bowling all-rounder, we have two places left for specialist pace bowlers. Voorburg’s Ryan Klein only played 12 matches, but he claimed 27 wickets at 11.56, with a strike rate of 17.93 (second only to Shariz among the regular bowlers) and an economy rate of 3.87. Who should join him is a tougher call: Ahsan Malik and Khalid Ahmadi of Sparta were excellent before the break but did not reappear after it, and, as Bertus noted earlier, Kyle Klein’s 21 wickets at 27.24 don’t constitute an overwhelming argument even when his batting is taken into account. My inclination would be to go for one of the genuine servants of the domestic game in Sparta’s excellent captain, Joost Martijn Snoep, who took 22 wickets at 19.23, with an economy rate of 3.63. In the absence of Malik and Ahmadi and Mudassar Bukhari struggling with injury, he bore much of the burden as well as proving a dogged number eleven with the bat.

BdJ: Well it seems we find ourselves in furious agreement here. In light of expectations at the start of the season, coupled with the difficulties posed by the unavailabilities and injuries that dogged  the Spartan seam section, I’d argue that Snoep leading his side to a top-four finish is a more impressive accomplishment than Voorburg’s deservedly claiming the silverware, and one that warrants the armband this year for Sparta’s skipper-chair. With ball in hand he was not only Sparta’s lead wicket-taker, but also the second most economical seamer in the competition behind only VCC’s Vivian Kingma who deserves a mention here as the only quick to go at less than 3.5 an over this season. At the other extreme we’d be remiss not to make some mention of Eduard Visser’s tally of 31 wickets, second best of the seamers and third overall behind only Overdijk and Ahmad by that metric, but the 752-run price tag attached puts him behind Klein for mine too, even before considering the latter’s title-sealing performance in the Grand Final.

RL: So, TKcricket’s Topklasse Team of the Year is:

Vikram Singh (VRA), Michael Levitt (Voorburg), Tayo Walbrugh (HBS), Garnett Tarr (Sparta), Sybrand Engelbrecht (Voorburg), Saqib Zulfiqar (Punjab), Hidde Overdijk (HCC), Shariz Ahmad (Voorburg), Ryan Klein (Voorburg), Daniel Doram (HCC), and Joost-Martijn Snoep (Sparta, captain).
12th man: Arnav Jain

Previous TOTYs | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

Bertus de Jong & Rod Lyall 04/10/22

BdJ: While the TK-TOTY teamsheet this year doesn’t quite come with one of the openers pre-printed as it did for the last couple of seasons, one might say Tonny Staal’s name has been helpfully pencilled in for us at the top already. HCC’s former skipper amassed 767 runs at an average of 48 at a healthy strike rate just a shade under 81, his contributions at the top of the order despite the lack of a dependable regular opening partner being instrumental to HCC’s successful title run. A stand-out innings of 143 off 144 against Excelsior in their first phase 2 clash key to HCC’s second-place finish and double-shot at a place in the final. The choice for second opener is perhaps less clear cut, largely because season stop-scorer Tayo Walbrugh did not consistently play that role for HBS, yet though Walbrugh occasionally dropped down to three for the Crows, even on the handful of occasions he’s not opened the batting he might as well have done, generally finding himself in the middle after a few balls regardless. Walbrugh’s tally of 844 runs at an average little over 60 certainly warrants a place somewhere in the top three, but the chief reason to push him down to three would be to make room for VOC’s Max O’Dowd, whose 669 runs from just 13 matches helped keep the Bloodhounds clear of danger this season, and indeed had he and opening partner Scott Edwards not been preoccupied with the national team’s  frenetic schedule VOC’s 2022 might have looked quite different. Similarly Voorburg’s Andre Malan would be a strong contender here had he played a whole season, having taken to Dutch conditions rather better than his more celebrated brother. Malan racked up 395 runs at an average of 65.8 and a strike rate of 110 from the eight games he played, and one suspects if he comes back for a full season he’ll be getting more than an honourable mention.

RL: Staal and Walbrugh were certainly top of my list, but O’Dowd wasn’t far away, and a top three of Staal, O’Dowd and Walbrugh makes perfect sense to me. One might think this is a bit rough on HCC’s Zac Worden, whose admirable consistency brought him 782 runs at 52.13 without his reaching three figures; nine half-centuries in 17 innings was a pretty remarkable effort and contributed significantly to HCC being anywhere near contention for the grand final, although a strike rate of a tad below 60 is a point against him. Others worthy of an honourable mention include Voorburg’s Musa Ahmad and Kampong’s overseas Cole Briggs, the latter too often having to try to hold a fragile batting line-up together.

RL: If we’re repeating last year’s decision to restrict ourselves to two overseas players, then Jonathan Vandiar of Punjab must surely have a decent claim to join Walbrugh in the side: it’s true he only played ten matches, but his tally of 581 runs at 83 with a strike-rate of 95 and including three centuries and two fifties in only eight innings was unquestionably one of the outstanding individual efforts of the season, and it brought some solidity to a Punjab side which fired a good deal below its championship-winning form of last season. There certainly has to be a spot for Voorburg’s skipper Bas de Leede, whose 627 runs came at 48.23 and again did not include a hundred, although he made seven half-centuries. Nor should we forget his 16 wickets at 22.50. Among the wicketkeeper-batters who might tuck into the middle order there’s a strong case for Scott Edwards (VOC), who filled this role successfully in national colours and who did make over 500 runs at an average of almost 50, and he should probably be preferred to either ACC’s Robin Smith or the mercurial but inconsistent Ali Raza of Sparta, who did top the keeping table along with Excelsior’s Roel Verhagen. That brings me to six, but it’s not entirely for sentimental reasons that I want to make a case for VRA captain Peter Borren, who bade farewell to the Topklasse with 377 runs at a strike rate of almost 92 and 15 wickets at an average of 21: as a captain and as a role model he has been a giant in the Dutch game, and I’d unquestionably have him leading this side.

BdJ: Walbrugh’s overseas status is of course not as clear-cut as it once was of course given his rumoured aspirations to orange, and there’s a couple of reasons it might be tempting to fudge things a little on that front. First among them is Delano Potgieter, who was a big reason VCC looked nigh-unbeatable early in the season. 17 wickets at an unmatched average of 10.94 and 259 runs at 43 across his ten matches make him one of the summer’s most impressive acquisitions, despite his status as a short-stay. Excelsior too picked their overseas wisely, Brett Hampton bagging 21 wickets and kicking in some decisive knocks down the order, and Lorenzo Ingram again proving his worth with 647 rns at 59 despite a comparatively quiet season with the ball. Failing overseas rule-bending, a case might also be made for Wesley Barresi whose 626 runs at 48 for HBS kept the Crows in contention deep into the season. As m’collegue observes, however, there are good reasons to argue for Borren’s inclusion beyond valedictory nostalgia and a vague feeling that we’ve unjustly overlooked him in the past. While Borren would be a shoe-in for team of the decade, he has admittedly had a merely adequate personal season by his own standards. As captain, however, he saw VRA through a season that many speculated would be a relegation battle – without any overseas and denied the services of Quirijn Gunning, Eric Szwarczynski and Ben Cooper –  and took what was essentially a youth team with hangers-on into the championship group.

BdJ: Of Borren’s young charges, Aryan Dutt stood out in the slow-bowling department, taking 24 wickets at 16 in the Topklasse when not bagging likes of Nicholas Pooran or Babar Azan in orange. Fellow teenaged spinner Shariz Ahmad likewise managed to fit in an excellent domestic season around his international commitments, taking 31 wickets at 17 for VCC, and when it comes to spin options it’s hard to look past the two 19 year-old break-outs. That said, HCC’s Clayton Floyd has a winners’ medal to go along with his 25 wickets, while Alex Roy’s efforts in Kampong’s doomed campaign were among the few positives in the Utrecht side’s ill-fated top-flight return. Salland’s German spin pair Venkat Ganesan and Elam Bharathi are also worth a mention here, though it’s perhaps hard to make a case for either individually (if only because there’s little to choose) they did take 42 wickets at 17.5 between them, and their contribution to Salland’s survival is difficult to overstate.

RL: To take the quicker bowlers first, Roy is certainly a strong contender with his 23 wickets at 20.48. So too is ACC’s Mees van Vliet, who had the best strike rate of all the front-line bowlers and who led the wicket-taking table for much of the season, only pipped by Hidde Overdijk as HCC played three extra games in the finals series. With 38 wickets at 16.18 Overdijk surely has to be included, and to have him coming in at eight would also give the batting additional depth. Others deserving serious consideration include Ahsan Malik of Sparta, who often kept his side in contention by securing the early breakthrough, Excelsior’s new-ball combination of Niels Etman and the evergreen Tom Heggelman, and Ryan Klein of HBS. With De Leede and Borren in the side and Overdijk getting a shout as well, I’m left with a difficult choice between Roy and Van Vliet, and I’m happy in the end to go along with m’colleague’s nomination of the former. In the spin department it is indeed a choice of two from off-spinner Dutt, the leg-breaks (or more accurately, wrong’uns) of Shariz, and the left-arm spin of Floyd. Seemingly under-rated at international level, Floyd is a proven wicket-taker, but in another very close call I too would give the last two places to Dutt and Shariz.

So there you have it, TKcricket’s Team of the Year:

Tonny Staal (HCC), Max O’Dowd (VOC), Tayo Walbrugh (HBS), Bas de Leede (Voorburg), Jonathan Vandiar (Punjab), Scott Edwards† (VOC), Peter Borren [c] (VRA), Hidde Overdijk (HCC), Alex Roy (Kampong), Aryan Dutt (VRA), Shariz Ahmad (Voorburg).

Previous Seasons TOTY | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

Bertus de Jong & Rod Lyall 08/10/21

Having had some time to reflect on the highs and lows of a fortunately full season 2021 of Topklasse, we at TKcricket are once again seating ourselves in the selector’s chair (or bench?) to fill out the roster for the 2021 Topklasse Team of the Year.

BdJ: Once again the easiest pick this year is also the first, VOC’s Max O’Dowd appears at the top of the run aggregates this year, and so at the top of our batting order. His 820 runs at a shade over 63 included five 50s and three centuries, and the Netherlands’ opener has been unmatched at the top of the order all season. The question of who partners him at the top is a little trickier, however. VCC’s keeper-opener Mohit Hingorani deserves a mention, having had a quietly effective season seeing off the new ball at Westvliet, and this despite the added burden of keeping to the league’s most intimidating pace attack, a task which he has performed admirably. But his numbers just don’t quite justify a claim to an opening slot, nor indeed the gloves, over O’Dowd’s usual partner at the top of VOC’s line-up, Scott Edwards. Edwards’ tally of 533 runs at 53 certainly makes a strong case for including him alongside O’Dowd, but for the fact that this season Edwards could not always be relied upon to take the field at the top of the order as scheduled. Assuming we’re not willing to risk our Team of the Year opener being caught short at the start of the innings, Edwards’ natural spot, it seems to me, is that of “floater.” This would also make room for Punjab’s Stephan Myburgh, who didn’t quite replicate his phenomenal showing last season but nonetheless racked up 570 runs at a brisk strike rate of 109.6, along with a Topklasse winner’s medal of course.

RL: In a season in which several well-established openers couldn’t quite come up to expectations – one thinks of VRA’s Vikram Singh (338 at 21.12), HCC’s Tonny Staal (261 at 21.75), Myburgh’s partner at Punjab, Rehmat Zulfiqar (334 at 19.65), and Tobias Visée (231 at 17.77) – the choice of O’Dowd and Myburgh seems immensely reasonable. It may be that the wettest summer in living memory had something to do with the batters’ modest returns, but it also confirms a pattern whereby Dutch-produced players have been less successful with the bat than with the ball.

RL: The same applies to the rest of the top six, which makes it all the more sensible to adopt m’colleague’s suggestion and bat Edwards at four or five. My number three would be Punjab’s Asad Zulfiqar, whose 529 runs at 37.79 lent solidity to a top order which blazed brightly much of the time but which could be extinguished on occasion. Asad hit three fifties, and the same argument of consistency in a line-up which often faltered leads me to find a place for VRA’s Eric Szwarczynski in his valedictory season; he only played 14 matches, but made 345 runs at 28.75, including four half-centuries. Another strong contender, if we pick him as a batsman-who-can-bowl rather than as an out-and-out all-rounder, is Navjit Singh of HBS, who contributed 519 runs at 39.92, earning himself a place in the Dutch A squad. This assumes we aren’t going to avail ourselves of the services of one of the handful of overseas players who graced the competition this year; if we are, then there’s a quartet of contenders for a spot in the top order.

BdJ: We’ve not specified our rules regarding overseas players with any more clarity than the League itself, but whatever the allowance you’d think Tayo Walbrugh’s 780 runs at 65 for HBS would give him a stronger claim to the number three slot than any potential challenger, likewise even if we count the Netherlands-eligible Tristan Stubbs as an overseas for as long as Cricket South Africa continue to be difficult about his potential call-up, his three figure average for Excelsior makes a strong case for finding space for him in the top order despite his early departure. Sybrand Engelbrecht’s overseas status must likewise be fading somewhat now that he’s settled in the Netherlands, though the desire to include him may stem somewhat from recency bias, having had a fairly quiet season until his magnificent innings against VRA propelled VCC into the final. Among the overseas contingent Garnett Tarr also deserves at least an honourable mention, his 637 runs at a shade under 40 one of the few positives for Sparta in an otherwise miserable season. All told Walbrugh and Stubbs remain head and shoulders above the rest of the Topklasse pros this season however, and would be my picks if we restrict ourselves to the rather retro two-overseas maximum. If the gloves go to Edwards I’d say Navjit Singh shades it over Asad Zulfiqar or Szwarczynski, by a distance the most improved bat in the competition over the past couple of seasons, and his busier, hard-running style makes him a fine foil to his HBS team-mate Walbrugh and the big-hitting Stubbs.

BdJ: On to the all-rounders, and two names immediately stand out here, or one if we’re going by surnames. Sikander and Saqib Zulfiqar have both had excellent seasons with bat and ball, and indeed their stats these season look as similar as do the brothers themselves. Both averaging just over 30 with the bat, and 27 wickets each with the ball, the pair have been instrumental in Punjab’s successful title run throughout the season. Sikander’s game-changing century in the first qualifier was a strong contender for knock of the season, and the pair’s six consecutive wickets were instrumental in the Rotterdammers defending 157 against VCC in the final. HCC’s Hidde Overdijk likely has the next strongest claim, despite only playing 12 matches, 19 wickets at 15.5 and 225 runs at 44.8 is an excellent return. VCC’s Bas de Leede, with 26 wickets at 12.4, would be a tempting option as a bowling all-rounder despite a middling season with the bat.

RL: Of the faster bowlers, De Leede’s season looked up after a slowish start, but Overdijk’s contribution to the HCC attack during that period when they were consistently ripping through opponents’ top order – the run which would have taken them into the play-offs but for that nonsense in the final round – gives him the edge in my view, as a bowler who can bat if not as an allrounder. But pride of place among the pacemen must go to Ryan Klein of HBS, whose 27 wickets at 12.93 gave his side’s attack an invaluable cutting edge. Not far behind comes Voorburg’s Viv Kingma, who claimed 23 at 12.78 despite another bout of injury worries; his partnership with Logan van Beek (who deserves an honourable mention in the allrounders category) was a key factor in the side’s elevated position, and their absence mid-season was a considerable blow. An honourable mention, too, for Suleiman Tariq, both as a tireless seamer who often bowled his ten overs unchanged, and as a canny captain, whose role in Punjab’s first championship should not be underestimated.

BdJ: Klein’s appearances in an orange shirt this summer have put his local status beyond question, and his place near the top of the wickets table would make him a shoe-in for this side even without his occasional but crucial cameos for HBS with the bat. Of the competitors to share the new ball Kingma has the edge over his VCC partner van Beek or Punjab’s Tariq by dint of his superior strike rate, and by the same token I’d say De Leede probably has the strongest claim as first change, and if we are to go with four seamers likely worth his spot as a dedicated bowler this season. That doesn’t leave us a lot of room in the spin section of course, if Stubbs and Saqib Zulfiqar both make the cut we’ve only one slow-bowling slot to play with, and despite some notable performances filling it ought not to be the toughest assignment for the selectors.

RL: If O’Dowd is the first name on the sheet, HCC’s slow left-armer Clayton Floyd is fairly certainly the second: with 37 wickets at an average of 7.32 he was ten wickets ahead of his nearest rivals, and he claimed five in an innings on three occasions. That gives us two or three spinners turning the ball away from the right-handers, but to be fair none of the leading off-spinners has made an overwhelming case for inclusion. With 26 wickets Voorburg’s Philippe Boissevain, another leggie, deserves a shout-out, while another to watch out for in future is VOC youngster Siebe van Wingerden, who only bowled 65.1 overs in his 16 matches but still took 22 wickets at 13.77 and finished seventh in the bowling averages. That gives us then, an almost settled selection, with issues balance leaving us with one spot still up for debate…

BdJ: Saqib Zulfiqar or Bas de Leede is indeed the last question left to us, and though it leaves the side looking a little spin-heavy I feel that team balance must take a back seat to the weight of a champion’s medal in this case. Cruel as the cut may be, one hopes that de Leede will be able to find some solace in his call-up for the Netherland’s World Cup squad.

Our Topklasse Team of the Year:

Max O’Dowd (VOC), Stephan Myburgh (Punjab), Tayo Walbrugh (HBS), Navjit Singh (HBS), Tristan Stubbs (Excelsior), Scott Edwards (VOC), Saqib Zulfiqar (Punjab), Sikander Zulfiqar (Punjab), Clayton Floyd (HCC), Ryan Klein (HBS), Vivian Kingma (Voorburg)

12th man: Sieb Van Wingerden (VOC).

Previous Seasons TOTY | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

There may only have been half a Topklasse campaign this season, but that won’t stop us from picking our Team of the Year. One significant difference, though, is that with only a handful of overseas players in the competition we aren’t considering a reserved place in that category; the overseas contingent will take their chances along with the locals.

Opening batsmen

RL: Punjab’s Stef Myburgh’s is not merely the first name on the sheet; the sheet comes with ‘S Myburgh’ pre-printed on it. His 524 runs at an average of 131.00, with three centuries and two fifties in seven innings, was a phenomenal effort, and his strike rate of 133.67, even allowing for the diminutive proportions of Punjab’s home ground, took the pressure off the rest of the top order. That said, his partner Rehmat Zulfiqar didn’t hang around either, and he is certainly one of the contenders for the other opening slot. Another is VRA’s 17-year-old Vikram Singh, who made a good deal of further progress in a batting line-up whose inconsistency demanded that he take a lot fewer risks than some of his rivals. Lenert van Wyk’s Topklasse form may not have been as stellar as in the T20 Cup, but he still averaged 42.33, while Musa Nadeem Ahmad made a pretty good fist of his step up from Groen en Wit to HCC.
BdJ: Myburgh is of course the easiest pick in this or any other team of the year, though the second opening slot is a good deal trickier. Van Wyk would be the obvious choice if we were to take T20 performances into account, but he only actually opened for Sparta in three Topklasse matches. By the same token Eric Szwarczynski’s unrivalled record at the top of the order for VRA rather suffers from comprising only two data points. The flip side of Singh’s rather placid approach is that one might argue it may have placed the rest of the line up under pressure to up the scoring, but of players that got a consistent run at the top of the order his average there of 40.83 probably puts him slightly clear of what competition there is.

Top and middle order

BdJ: The rest of the top order is perhaps a little more keenly contested, but with 382 runs at an average of 63.67 VCC skipper Bas de Leede is another easy pick, and has a strong claim on the captaincy too. Last season’s MVP Mudassar Bukhari made less of an impact with the ball this season, but the Sparta captain’s 253 runs at a shade over 50 also put him in the running for a middle order slot, though in captaincy terms it was arguably VOC’s Corey Rutgers that had the toughest assignment this season, deputising for the injured Pieter Seelaar while trying to hold together a team that had been thoroughly gutted by absence and unavailability, Rutgers’ own return of 275 runs at 45.83 understates the role he played in keeping VOC looking occasionally competitive this season. It’s tough to make a case for either over Punjab’s Teja Nidamanuru, however; the Auckland all-rounder may have had a modest impact with the ball in his debut Topklasse season but 261 runs at 87 must be enough to guarantee him a place on the strength of his batting alone. Conversely HCC’s Hidde Overdijk would doubtless make the team purely on the strength of his bowling (taking 17 wickets at 12.71 across eight games) even if he hadn’t scored a run all season. In fact he scored 250 at an average of 41.67, which makes him comfortably 2020’s stand-out all rounder.
RL: Corey Rutgers is your man for trench warfare and his role for VOC was invaluable, but no doubt others have a stronger claim here. De Leede, Nidamanuru and Overdijk are all in that category, and the fact that they all bowl as well perhaps gives us licence to add another batsman to the list. Among the younger brigade ACC’s Shreyas Potdar and VOC’s Arnav Jain both made good progress in sides where the batting was often iffy, but the greatest progress of all was made by Julian de Mey of HBS, whose conclusion to the season converted him from spin bowler to batting all-rounder. I’d put him at five or six in this team.

Wicketkeeper

RL: Wicket-keeping statistics are hard to interpret: the number of catches taken behind the stumps is often a function of the attack as much as the keeper himself. Purely on the stats Satish Ravichandran of Dosti came out on top this year, but three others are worthy of consideration: Mitch Lees of VRA was always tidy, Tim de Kok did well in his first season keeping for VOC, but my candidate would be Ali Raza of Sparta 1888, not only for his work with the gloves but also for his destructive batting. I reckon he’d love coming in at seven with eight or ten overs to go.
BdJ: Just on weight of runs it’s hard to argue for anyone but Raza, though it should be noted that his best performances came after he moved up the order toward the back end of the season. But even after what has generally been a rather quiet season with the bat for the league’s glovemen, there’s a couple of further honourable mentions to be made. Toby Visée was rather hit and miss even before injury ruled him out for the last couple of games, but was as brutal as ever when he came off, his 169 runs coming at a strike rate of almost 200. The summer’s most impressive showing however, didn’t come from a specialist keeper at all. Dilettante gloveman Eric Szwarczynski kept for VRA through all 47.2 overs of Punjab’s final innings of the season without conceding a single bye, having batted through the entirety of the first innings for an unbeaten 120*.

Seamers

BdJ: With Overdijk and De Leede already assured of a spot the seam section is already rather cramped, but space must surely be found for Overdijk’s team-mate Ollie Klaus, whose return of 18 wickets at 9.11 was instrumental in HCC topping the table. Punjab skipper Suleiman Tariq’s 19 wickets may have come at more than twice the price, though given the size of the Zomercomplex that would seem harsh grounds to exclude the summer’s top wicket-taker. A case might nonetheless be made for the VOC’s veteran Jelte Schoonheim, who broke into the top five wicket-takers for the first time in his storied career with 16 scalps at 13.62. Equally impressive was his team-mate Ahsan Malik, who finished with 11 wickets at 12.27 despite missing the first half of the season.
RL: Hard to argue with Klaus and Tariq: the former sharpened the edge of HCC’s table-topping attack, while the latter, as well as taking the new ball, has an enviable record as the competition’s most effective cleaner-up of tails. It’s a bit rough on Schoonheim, who got better as the season went on and who suffers from the plethora of seam-bowling all-rounders, and perhaps even more on Dosti’s Waheed Masood, who was the most consistent performer in a largely overwhelmed side. If we could squeeze in another seamer, Masood would get my vote. And there should be an honourable mention for Rens van Troost of Excelsior, another who grew into a more responsible role in a young and comparatively inexperienced team.

Spinners

RL: If we include De Mey as a batting all-rounder a case could be made for adding just one more spinner (thus making room for Masood, or Schoonheim), and the strongest contender would probably be Voorburg’s leg-spinner Philippe Boissevain, ahead of HCC’s Clayton Floyd and Punjab’s Saqib Zulfiqar. Floyd’s strike rate was marginally better than Boissevain’s (24.33 to 26.00), but the success of HCC’s pace attack meant that he played a less crucial role overall. In terms of impact, few could rival VRA’s 14-year-old left-armer Luke Hartsink, but one senses that his time will come soon enough.
BdJ: It’s remarkable that if we’re looking for a specialist spinner that young Hartsink is such a strong contender, the 14 year-old’s eight wickets coming across just five matches and at a better economy than any of his rivals, even ignoring the genuine game-changing spells he produced in the T20 competition. That said, Boissevain remains the lead Topklasse wicket-taker amongst the slow bowlers despite missing the final two games due to injury, and his development as a batsman should not be discounted. His average of 35.25 this season is scarcely lower than de Mey’s, and his 141 runs came at better than a run a ball. To my mind Boissevain pretty much owns the spin all-rounder slot this season, freeing up space for another specialist.
So, with all the above in mind, we have:

Our Team of the Year:

Stephan Myburgh (Punjab), Vikram Singh (VRA), Ali Raza [+] (Sparta), Bas de Leede [c] (VCC), Corey Rutgers (VOC), Teja Nidamanuru (Punjab), Hidde Overdijk (HCC), Philippe Boissevain (VCC), Jelte Schoonheim (VOC), Ollie Klaus (HCC), Suleiman Tariq (Punjab)
12th man: Luke Hartsink (VRA)