Rod Lyall 15/04/2023
Change has been the order of the day at the Bermweg, where Sparta 1888 have been among the most active clubs over the winter.
They have been faced with the retirement of former international Mudassar Bukhari (though preseason scorecards suggest that retirement may not have stuck) and Joost Kroesen’s return to Excelsior, not to mention the fact that Garnett Tarr will not be coming back for a fourth season, leaving a not-insignificant gap in the top order. New Zealanders Sam Ferguson and Will Clark are still on their books (though neither are expected to feature much this season) and they have added two South Africans and another New Zealander to the squad, in the persons of Juandré Scheepers, Cameron Fraser and Riley Mudford.
The 23-year-old Scheepers, a left-handed batter and left-arm fast medium bowler, has played a couple of games for Limpopo in the CSA T20 Provincial Cup but now lives in the Netherlands, while Fraser, two years younger, is a member of the Rondebosch club side which has just claimed the Western Province Premier League. Mudford, also 23, is a wicketkeeper-batter who has represented Auckland A, and who also played a couple of interprovincial T20 games for Leinster Lightning last year, while he was turning out for Dublin club side Railway Union.
The Spartan attack will be further strengthened by the return of Max Hoornweg after two seasons with Rotterdam neighbours VOC, and the arrival of off-spinner Umar Baker, who will pass Kroesen somewhere on the route from Thurlede to the Bermweg. The Capelle side have also acquired the Sint Maarten-born Shaquille Martina, who first came to the Netherlands as a 16-year-old and who now returns to the Topklasse after a 12-year gap.
The team will again by led by Martijn Snoep, and with those five additions and the continued presence of such hardy annuals as Manminder Singh along with the explosive Ali Raza, Khalid Ahmadi, Mamoon Lafif (when the latter three are not on Belgian duty), he will undoubtedly be looking for an improvement on last season’s seventh place on the T20 table. “We’re of course going to be looking to win every game, we have the squad to beat any team on the day” say Snoep, “Finals Day is the first goal and will see what happens from there. Failing that, worst case scenario – avoid relegation.”
Young prospects: Of the younger players at Bermweg, Snoep is quick to spotlight seam all-rounder Prithvi Balwantsingh, “he looks better every year, largely self-taught and still just 21 years old, he’s due a big season.”
T20 Record: 2023 GS (7th) | ’22 QF | ’21 QF | ’20 RU | ’19 GS | ’18 GS | ’17⅛F | ’16 GS | ’15 GS | ’14 GS
That Salland are again part of the Topklasse T20 mix is due to a remarkable exercise in escapology which they pulled off last year, convincingly beating ACC in their final game to stay up at the Amsterdammers’ expense.
The heroes that day, as so often in the Deventer side’s better efforts, were Venkat Ganesan, Sahir Naqash and Akhil Gopinath, all of whom will again be donning the maroon and blue this year.
But the team will be missing skipper Victor Lubbers, who will be playing his cricket at Excelsior this year, as well as last season’s two overseas, Finn Raxworthy (the club’s overall leading run-scorer in the 2023 T20 Cup) and Fraser Bartholomew.
As against that, Salland’s German contingent will be augmented by the addition of 20-year-old Acelan Pruss, a Vfb Gelsenkirchen all-rounder who has been playing in Benoni, South Africa over the winter, and by Connor Roff, a South African from Eastern Province who has had several seasons with Rothley Park in Leicestershire and who is presumably not to be confused with the Canadian singer-songwriter of the same name.
Although Victor Lubbers has gone, his elder brother Reinder will ensure that the Lubbers name is still heard at Het Schootsveld, while opening batter and wicketkeeper Piyaranga Ottachchige will again join Naqash and the Germans in the side; Ganesan takes over the captaincy.
Salland’s reliance on their German-based players means that they may again suffer from those players’ national team commitments, but when they are all available they are capable of pulling off surprises in both formats, as they did against an admittedly-depleted Voorburg in last year’s T20 Cup.
One might suppose, though, that this is a team better suited to the longer format (where they will be looking for a quick return from the Hoofdklasse), and they will need to be at their absolute best if they are to stay up in the Topklasse T20 for another year.
Young prospects: Unsurprisingly given the growing German influence at Salland, the most eye-catching youngsters on their books this season hail from across the eastern border alongside the aformentioned Pruss, upcoming German-Afghan quick Shahir Malikzai is expected be making his Topklasse debut for Salland this season. With a stiff-armed action reminiscent of Jaspit Bumrah, the right-armer is sure to make an impression.
T20 Record: 2023 GS (8th) | ’22 GS | ’21 SF | ’20 N/A | ’19 QF | ’18 GS | ’17 ⅛F | ’16 N/A | ’15 N/A | ’14 N/A
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