Rod Lyall 20/04/2025
Having leapt from seventh in 2023 to runners-up last year, VRA Amsterdam will be keen to go one better this time round and claim their first championship since 2011.
Last season’s improvement was driven by a sustained campaign of recruitment, both locally and from overseas, contrasting sharply with the youth development policy which had been pursued by Peter Borren during his time in charge in the Amsterdamse Bos.
One of those recruits, left-arm spinner Clayton Floyd, has now returned whence he came, while one of the most promising of the younger brigade, Udit Nashier, has gone to pursue his development with Voorburg; on the other hand, Shreyas Potdar has joined the squad, transferring across Amstelveen from relegated ACC.
The Amsterdammers have also signed three new overseas: New Zealanders Peter Ruffel and Jack Cassidy, and, unusually, Jersey’s Patrick Gouge.
Ruffell, a pace bowler who replaces Elijah Eales in the attack, has played for Auckland Under-19s and hails from Westlake Boys’ High School, which also produced Max O’Dowd and brothers Daniel and Ross ter Braak.
Wellington-born Cassidy, a wicketkeeper-batter who will succeed Demari Prince behind the stumps, plays for the illustrious Cornwall club in Auckland.
22-year-old Gouge has played for several English clubs, and has appeared eight times for Jersey across two formats, his best score 52 in a T20I against Spain in April last year; in addition to his batting, his leg spin will be useful to his new club given the departure of Floyd and Nashier.
They do, however, still have the services of Dutch international wrong’un specialist Shariz Ahmad, who has also developed into a valuable middle-order batter; he topped VRA’s batting averages last season with 323 runs at 46.14.
The Amsterdam club will also be delighted to see the return of Teja Nidamanuru, who missed all but two matches of the 50-over competition last season through injury. He will resume the captaincy, and will be an important factor when national team duties permit his availability.
The same applies to opener Vikram Singh, who seldom showed his best form with the bat in 2024 after a mercurial season the year before.
The squad has plenty of bowling options, with left-armers Ben Fletcher and Ashir Abid alongside Ruffell and Sharad Hake, who broke into the Topklasse side towards the end of last season and bowled some useful spells.
Nidamanuru sees an increased role this year for youngsters Ibaad Zaidi and Darsh Abhinay, who have made considerable progress over the winter.
‘We definitely want to go one better this year,’ he says, and we believe we have the squad to do that.’
‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ seems to have been the watchword for Punjab-Ghausia Rotterdam over the winter, and the defending champions have opted firmly for the mixture as before.
The only real change is the departure of Asad Zulfiqar to Hermes, but he had played much less frequently in the first team following the arrival of Belgian-based wicketkeeper Fawad Shinwari at the Zomercomplex.
Shinwari warmed up with a century against Excelsior in the side’s first game a couple of weeks ago, and adds another dimension to a batting line-up which also includes, among local players, Musa Ahmad and the remaining Zulfiqars, Saqib and skipper Sikander.
But the real power was provided last year by Musa’s opening partner Shoaib Minhas, the enormously destructive Jonathan Vandiar, and Mohsin Riaz, all of whom are back this season.
Together they make an extremely solid top six, probably the most consistent in the competition, and few sides will relish the trip to the Zomercomplex.
But equally, the well-balanced attack has the knack of strangling opponents’ batting, with evergreen Suleiman Tariq often bowling ten extremely testing overs of seam first up, overseas Ahmad Shafiq providing accurate spin from the other end, and then Kamal Sajjad and Sikander Zulfiqar continuing the pace attack and Saqib Zulfiqar contributing teasing leg spin.
Should they be needed, Mubashar Hussain, Burhan Niaz and Minhas can all chip in with some useful overs, while Khurram Shahzad stepped up towards the end of last season after the departure of Shafiq and played an important part in Punjab’s taking the title.
Musa and the brothers Zulfiqar are, of course, all former internationals, and one or more of them might well receive a call-up during the summer, especially given the likely unavailability of the national side’s county-contracted players.
And if strength in depth should be needed, the Rotterdammers claimed the championship last year without calling on the reserves they acquired through their merger with Ghausia Feijenoord, although Danish Ateeq, Aon Mohammad Cheema and Bilal Saleem, among others, all played significant roles in the Second XI’s successful season in the Eerste Klasse.
All in all, then, Punjab look in good shape to defend their title, and they should be there or thereabouts when the competition reaches its denouement at the start of August.
TKcricket 