Asides

T20 Previews | Excelsior ’20 & VOC

Bertus de Jong 18/04/2023

Excelsior ’20’s 2023 season is not fondly remembered in Schiedam, the club’s traditional prioritising of the 50-over format meaning an impressive showing in the T20 competition is rated poor compensation for a 9th-place finish in the Topklasse, but nonethless the Schiedammers have had more success in the short format in recent years, twice finishing one win short of silverware as runners-up to VOC.

Roel Verhagen leads an appreciably stronger side into this year’s competition, having picked up Salland skipper Victor Lubbers in the off season and the prodigal Joost Kroesen returning from Sparta, while two new signings join the evergreen Lorenzo Ingram in the overseas section.

South African opening bat Derek Mitchell will likely partner either Verhagen himself or his predecessor Tim Etman at the top, while former Australia u19s seam all-rounder Jason Ralston will lend a cutting edge to the pace attack as well as hitting power down the order.

Despite these new arrivals, Excelsior’s squad looks like an island of continuity in a broiling sea of change this season, with a reassuringly stable contingent of van Troosts, Kroesens and Etmans (Etmen? Etmannen?) filling out the rest of the roster.

Umar Baker’s switch to Sparta is the most notable departure over the winter, along with the non-return of overseas Michael Hart and the rumoured retirement of Tom Heggleman. In their absence Verhagen may have to bowl more than he’d like again, though given his return of 13 wickets at an economy under 7 in last year’s T20 competition his reluctance is perhaps unwarranted.

The word at Thurlede is that Excelsior’s principal ambition for 2024 is to return to the top end of the table in the 50-over competition, and perhaps it’s the freedom afforded by treating T20 as a secondary concern that’s allowed them to

Young prospects: Stan van Troost has been a regular in the first team since taking over the gloves from Verhagen a couple of seasons back, but is tipped for a big season with the bat after a winter spent turning out for Curtin-Victoria in Perth grade cricket. Youn Jens Blankestijn, who spent part of the off-season at the Gary Kirsten academy in South Africa, is also ecpected to play a more prominent role with the ball for the coming season.

T20 Record: 2023 RU | ’22 RU | ’21 QF | ’20 SF | ’19 GS | ’18 ⅛F | ’17 QF | ’16 SF | ’15 QF | ’14 QF

Defending champions VOC Rotterdam find themselves facing the ever-tricky challenge of dynastic succession this season, the side’s remarkable domination of the T20 competition in recent years, winning four titles of the last five, being in no small part down to the effectiveness of the partnership of Dutch internationals Max O’Dowd and Scott Edwards at the top of the order, as well as the eaerlier efforts of their sometime flatmate Corey Rutgers and Edwards’ predecessor as Netherlands captain Pieter Seelaar.

Rutgers and Seelaaar had already been edging their way toward retirement, but the well-publicised departure of O’Dowd and Edwards (along with Rutgers) to Kampong Utrecht over the winter leaves the Bloodhounds without four key figures in their most successful short-format side.

Yet skipper Tim de Kok adds some welcome perspective; “Obviously Max and Scott will leave a gap, but with their Dutch commitments we didn’t always see much of them anyway.” Indeed O’Dowd and Edwards appeared in only three T20s for VOC last season, Seelaar just two, Rutgers not at all and Edwards already handed over the gloves to Francois Fourie some time ago. “The three new Kiwis we’ve got look to be serious players” adds de Kok, “and [Jock] McKenzie can bowl pretty rapid too.”

Along with NZ u19s and Auckland all-rounder McKenzie, the new Kiwi contingent includes top order bat and part-time leggie Taylor Bettelheim, and all-rounder Ryan Schierhout, both of whom have provincial A team experience back in New Zealand.

While there have been further departures from Hazelaarweg, with last season’s overseas Lane Berry not returning, Burhan Niaz heading to Punjab and Max Hoornweg back to Sparta, most of VOC’s regulars from last season will be back for the Bloodhounds. Alongside de Kok himself, the veteran Jelte Schoonheim (onze vedette as de Kok describes him) has signed on for another season, while slow-bowling pair Asief Hoseinbaks and Arnav Jain are also retained, the latter now joined by younger brother Aaditt, the left arm quick making the switch from VRA over the winter.

In de Kok’s assessment, a fourth consecutive title and a berth at the European T10 Championships well within reach. “We’re really happy with the group we have, there’s a good vibe and the talent to beat any team. We’ve got our sights set on going back to Spain.”

Young prospects: Alongside spinner Sieb van Wingerden, de Kok identifies his two young pace prospects as worth watching for in the coming season, “Aaditt [Jain] really showed some skills [at the 2023 ECL] in Spain – him and Roman [Harhangi] for my money are the two stand-out talents in that age group for the Dutch.”

T20 Record: 2023 TKC | ’22 TKC | ’21 TKC | ’20 GS | ’19 TKC | ’18 QF | ’17 GS | ’16 GS | ’16 QF | ’14 GS

T20 Previews | Punjab & HCC

Rod Lyall 17/04/24

Punjab Rotterdam topped the Topklasse T20 table last year jointly with HCC, although both eventually lost their semi-finals. Punjab, who have merged with Rotterdam neighbours Ghausia Feyenoord over the winter, will unquestionably be strengthened by the return of Jonathan Vandiar from HCC, and by the arrival of Dutch international Musa Ahmad from Voorburg.

Musa, the leading scorer in the T20 round robin last year with 348 runs at an average of 58.00 and a strike rate of nearly 128, will slot into a Zulfiqar-heavy Punjab top order alongside the returning Shoiab Minhas and potentially Stephan Myburgh, who is rumoured to be mulling a competitive return. Although Vandiar had a very quiet campaign for the Diepput club, is always at his most menacing at ‘t Zomercomplex.

The Ghausia merger has also boosted Punjab’s squad list significantly, most notably with allrounder Danish Ateeq, who hit 295 runs with a strike rate of almost 188 in last season’s Eerste Klasse T20 as well as claiming 14 wickets, and Bilal Saleem, whose 405 runs at 57.86 and a strike rate of over 150; it will be interesting to see whether either or both of these players force themselves into the new-look Punjab side.

The same applies to Sajjad Kamal who, like Musa, moves to ‘t Zomercomplex from Voorburg; he found himself in the seconds at Westvliet last year, but he, too, may be a contender for a first-team with Punjab. He’ll also be facing competition from Belgian international Burhan Niaz, who makes the switch from VOC.

Then, inevitably, there are the four Zulfiqars, triplets Asad, Saqib and Sikander and elder brother Rehmat: they have collectively anchored the top order in the years since they moved from ACC, while Sikander’s brisk pace and Saqib’s leg spin have both contributed substantially to Punjab’s attack.

Sikander takes over the captaincy from the veteran Sulaiman Tariq this season, though the former skipper will doubtless still have plenty to contribute with the ball. Together with Muhammad Shafiq and the greatly-improved Mubashar Hussain, Tariq’s wiley medium pace accounted for the lion’s share of the wickets last year; the trio took 42 between them, two-thirds of those captured by the side in their eight games.

A slightly unkind draw gives Punjab only three games at ‘t Zomercomplex, where they are undoubtedly at their most effective, but they are well adapted to the T20 format and it would be no surprise if they were again to make it to the finals day.

T20 Record: 2023 SF | ’22 GS | ’21 SF | ’20 QF | ’19 QF | ’18 GS | ’17 SF | ’16 N/A | ’15 N/A | ’14 N/A

HCC have opted for a triple Antipodean strengthening of their squad, recruiting New Zealanders Adam Leonard and Jed Wiggins and South Australian Conor McInerney to compensate them for the non-return of Daniel Doram and the departures of Vandiar to Punjab, left-arm spinner Clayton Floyd to VRA and medium-pacer Henrico Venter to HBS.

27-year-old allrounder Leonard has played three Plunket Shield matches for Wellington since moving across the Cook Strait from Nelson, while off-spinner Wiggins, two years younger, has appeared alongside him in Wellington’s A side.

Left-hander McInerney, aged 30, has played 15 times for South Australia, most recently in the State’s final Sheffield Shield match of the season, against Tasmania in Hobart, and has just completed a successful Premier League campaign with his new club, Glenelg, helping them to the grand final.

HCC will also welcome back pace man Ali Ahmad Qasim, who has played for Voorburg for the past four seasons, but who claimed Topklasse 89 wickets for the Lions between 2011 and 2019.

In addition to their three overseas players the Diepput club will be looking to Boris Gorlee and Tonny Staal to show the form which earned them both national team selection, and will also hope to see further progress from youngster Teun Kloppenburg, who demonstrated with three consecutive half-centuries last season that he has the temperament to succeed at the top level and who has the hard-hitting skills to be a force in the T20 format.

Nor should we forget allrounder Hidde Overdijk, who as well as being the spearhead of the pace attack has contributed crucial innings in both formats and has the ability to turn a game very quickly, while younger brother Jan-Wieger may take a further step towards establishing himself as a permanent fixture in the side.

Zimbabwean Patient Charumbira gives valuable support in the pace attack, while the return of Ratha Alphonse to Kampong is likely to mean that we will again see Yash Patel behind the stumps.

Having reached the final of the 50-over competition and the semi-finals of the T20 Cup last year, HCC will be especially keen to pick up some silverware this time, and they certainly have the strength on paper to once again challenge for either or both titles.

T20 Record: 2023 SF | ’22 SF | ’21 GS | ’20 GS | ’19 QF | ’18 SF | ’17 QF | ’16 SF | ’15 SF | ’14 SF

T20 Previews | VRA & Voorburg

Bertus de Jong 16/04/2024

Just three years on from winning the title, this season’s VRA Amsterdam side are all but unrecognisable. Of the side that lifted the T20 Cup at the end of the summer of 2020, fewer than half are still on VRA’s books, and of those most are unlikely to feature much for the first XI this year.

Netherlands all-rounder Teja Nidamanuru, who takes on the captaincy full-time this season, recognises the challenge of reshaping a side still emerging from the long shadow cast by his predecessor Peter Borren. “For us this season it’s about firmly establishing and our identity and way of playing” he tells TKcricket. Nidamanuru isn’t quite starting with a clean slate, there’s a few survivors from the previous era, not least sometime captain and Netherlands bat Vikram Singh, his opening partner Shirase Rasool, and left arm seamer Ashir Abid, but the trio will be in the minority as the Amsterdam club rings the changes.

A host of new arrivals will replace or displace some familiar faces at the Bos, with Aryan Dutt departing for Hermes, Mitch Lees and Quirijn Gunning retired to Bloemendaal, while club stalwart Leon Turmaine leads a substantial contingent down to strengthen the seconds; Jack Balbirnie, Luke Scully, Debrup Dasgupta and Udit Nashier amongst those slated to spend much of their season turning out for the twos.

In their place come Dutch international spinners Clayton Floyd and Shariz Ahmad, transfering from HCC and VCC respectively, while overseas bat Johan Smal returns alongside new three new in signings Sint Maarten-born keeper-bat Demari Prince, seam all-rounder Elijah Eales and left-arm quick Ben Fletcher. Prince will take over the gloves from Lees and Scully, while Fletcher (also a Dutch passport-holder) will likely open the bowling alongside Abid. Meanwhile Eales, a right-arm seam all-rounder (and son of former Australia rugby captain John Eales) has already demonstrated an ability to hit a very long ball in pre-season.

Despite the strength of the squad on paper, Nidamanuru is not looking at silverware as the first yardstick of success, “we’re of course going to look to put ourselves in a position to play for championships, but the priority is not to put a team together for one season. A lot of these guys are Dutch passport-holders and will be looking to push on to higher honours, so while there’s been a lot of changes we’re hoping to keep this team together for a long time.”

Young prospects: Though the influx of talent will likely keep many of VRA’s youth players out of the side at least as long as they’re at full strength, there’s no shortage of youngsters waiting in the wings. “In the starting squad, Shirase Rasool is one to watch out for this season” says Nidamanuru, “the guys coming up – Ibaad (Zaidi), I like what I’m seeing – he’s got a lot of time when he bats. I don’t understand how he hasn’t played age group. He’ll play for sure if we lose a few players to World Cup duty. Adam Constant will likely be batting three for the seconds, he averaged around forty last year, he’s one that could definitely step up too.”

T20 Record: 2023 GS (5th) | ’22 QF | ’21 QF | ’20 TKC | ’19 QF | ’18 QF | ’17 QF | ’16 QF | ’15 RU | ’14 SF

Despite their recent success in the longer format, VCC have rarely been more than also-rans (if that) in the T20 competition. The Topklasse 50-over champions have moreover seen something of an exodus over the winter, and despite boasting an admirable depth and youth production line, the Voorburg club does look to be heading into something of a transitional season for 2024.

They will do so under new leadership, with keeper-bat Noah Croes taking over the captaincy from SA Engelbrecht. While the pair’s fellow Netherlands international Logan van Beek remains on the roster, it’s not clear how much the all-rounder will play this summer. Similarly legspinner Flip Boissevain’s availability is likely to be limited as he pursues as career in New Zealand, and Karl Niuewoudt has hung up his boots too.

Brothers Musa and Shariz Ahmad have also departed, the former for Punjab and the latter for VRA, opening further gaps both at the top of the order and in the spin section. Former HBS overseas Gavin Kaplan arrives to fill the former, while long-serving legspin understudy Floris de Lange will be shouldering more responsinbility with the ball, as may former Dutch youth all-rounder Nehaan Gigani.

VCC retain the services of in-form opening bat Michael Levitt as well as seam pair Vivian Kingma and Ryan Klein, though the latter’s fitness is a worry ahead of the season and all three are in contention for national call-ups at the back end of the competition. Rangy right-armer Mees van Vliet may well feature more prominently for the first team to cover, and indeed there’s more than a few young players who will likely get the chance to cement a a spot in the senior side this season.

“We’re quietly confident,” Croes says, “we’ve still got the core and a really good squad, with the experience of some of our Dutch guys over the last months out in South African and Nepal we’ve got a lot of good players in form, and Ryan Klein back from injury is a big bonus. It’s a good mix of younsters and senior guys, we’ll be in amongst iot for sure and hopefully holding some more silverware at the end of the T20 season.”

Young prospects: As a reliable supplier of talent to both the Netherlands age-group and senior teams, VCC are almost spoilt for choice in terms of young talent to fill the gaps that have opened in the senior side. Of the de Leede clan, Tom and perhaps Stijn look set to make the step up to the senior side, while Alejo Nota is also pushing for a spot.

Opening bat Cedric de Lange has already appeared for the firsts on more than a few occasions, and joining him back at Voorburg this season will be his Dutch under 19s team-mate Michael Molenaar, returning to the old country from South Africa, who Croes also tips to impress. “For us a a club it’s great to see the youngrsters coming up through the ranks; Molenaar, de Leede, de Lange, Nota are all really exctiting prospects for us as a club and I think you’ll be seeing those names over the course of the season, which is really exciting for Dutch cricket.”

T20 Record: 2023 GS (6th) | ’22 QF | ’21 GS | ’20 SF | ’19 QF | ’18 ⅛F | ’17 GS | ’16 N/A | ’15 GS | ’14 GS

T20 Previews | Sparta 1888 & Salland CC

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

T20 Previews | HBS Craeyenhout & Hermes DVS

Bertus de Jong 15/04/24

HBS Craeyenhout, 2018 T20 Cup Champions, had racked up an impressive record in the fial few seasons of the old competition, the final edition in 2022 being the first time in five years that they failed to reach finals day, and indeed only the second time that they were not featured in the final itself. Last season marked a new nadir for the Crows, finishing second from bottom in the new round-robin group stage and barely escaping relegation.

Skipper Wesley Barresi is admirably frank about last season’s shortcomings, “It wasn’t up to scratch, the approach we took last year isn’t a model for how we want to go about things.” Identifying inconsistent selection and premature promotion of youth players to the first team as issues last summer, Barresi takes his own share of responsibility, “It was way too early, even though I thought they were capable of stepping up, this season those younger players will mostly drop down to the twos. And the older guys that can only play one or two games, we need to rely on players, so we won’t be investing in guys that can’t make a commitment to play regularly.”

Filling the gaps left by youngsters and occasionals will be young South African signings Matthew de Villiers and Lehan Botha (top order bat who bowls occasional offspin and a seam all-rounder respectively) while Henrico Venter comes across from HCC, and former Dutch u19s keeper Lucas del Bianco also joins the Crows on his return from the UK. Tim Drummond will miss most if not all of the season owing to work commitments in South Africa, but prolific opening bat Tayo Walbrugh, looking to make a permanent move to the Netherlands, will be back at Craeyenhout again, as will seam all-rounder Kyle Klein.

Looking ahead at the coming season, HBS will be looking for consistency above all as they look to build back “Obviously I can say that we want to win the leagues, but that’s a bit of a cliché, but really we want to be more consistent. Looking at the balance of the squads that we have in the first and second XI I think we’re looking pretty decent, I know that we can do a lot better than last year, but as a captain I just want to see more consistency in our performances. What I will say is that in the T20 we do want to push to get back to the finals day again.

Young prospects: While HBS are taking a conscious step back from the youth-first selection policy of last season, Barresi’s keen to stress the younger players remain part of plans going forward; “Training-wise a lot of the younger guys will stay a part of the group as you want to nurture and mentor them, even though most will drop back to the twos to build experience. That said [among younger 1st team players], keep an eye on Kyle Klein, he’s really come a long way and I think he’s gonna do some damage this year in the Toklasse, and look out for Lucas del Bianco, he’s going to be our frontline keeper this year. In terms of really the young guys there’s a chance that Elmar Boendermaker and Azam Khan could make an appearance or two again, though they’ll likely be mostly bolstering the seconds this season. Finally Reece Mason, another local, also still a young guy and will be important for us this season.”

T20 Record: 2023 GS (9th) | ’22 QF | ’21 RU | ’20 SF | ’19 RU | ’18 TKC | ’17 RU | ’16 GS | ’15 GS | ’14 GS

Hermes DVS’ six-year exile from the 50-over top-flight has been matched with a dismal run in the shorter format in recent years, last reaching finals day almost a decade ago and rarely progressing beyond the group stage. The overhaul of the T20 competition last season consigned them to the second tier, but the Schiedammers matched their success in the one-day competition last year, an emphatic 64-run win over Quick Haag in the Hoofdklasse T20 final ensuring they’d be back with the big boys in both formats for 2024.

This season’s squad looks broadly similar to that which did the Hoofdklasse double last summer, again led by Netherlands A skipper Sebastiaan Braat alongside Sky Blue stalwarts Davey Verweij Olivier and Ralph Elenbaas, while even veteran Nick Statham has signed on again if needed. Spanish international Daniel Doyle-Calle, who topped the Hoofklasse batting averages last season, will also return to the Loopuyt Oval for another summer, as will promising South African youngster Ashley Ostling. Further bolstering the batting will be new signing Christoffel Klijnhans – a left-handed bat who turns out for Northern Cape.

The loss of Sahil Kothari, who made a last-minute switch back to ACC for reasons of personal logistics, will be more than balanced by the arrival of Netherlands offspinner Aryan Dutt from VRA – though international commitments may impact his availability at the back end of the T20 competiton. The appointment of Hermes coach Jake Needham to the top job in Belgium has also resulted in an influx of young talent from across the southern border, top-order bat Omid Malik Khel, left-arm spinner Murid Ekrami, and seamers Sajad Ahmadzai and Jabar Jabarkhel added to the rolls at Harga.

Braat is modest in his ambitions for Hermes first season back in the top tier, but bullish about their T20 potential; “After six years of hard work to get back to the Topklasse we’ll be satisfied the moment we secure survival, happy with a mid-table finish. That said I do think in the T20 format with this squad we have the potential to spring some ambushes, so fair to say we do have an eye on finals day.”

Young Prospects: For their first season back in the top flight Hermes will be looking to consolidate first rather than rushing to blood youngsters, though Braat does single out Dutch youth international Sam van Giezen as one for the future. “Given the depth of the squad he may not get called-up much this season, especially with the young Belgians also pushing for a first team spot, but he is a real stand out.”

T20 Record: 2023 HKC | ’22 GS | ’21 GS | ’20 GS | ’19 GS | ’18 QF | ’17 GS | ’16 QF | ’15 GS | ’14 TKC

The false promise of league restructuring

Rod Lyall 28/01/24

The siren-call of grade inflation is once again being heard in Dutch cricket.

For those who don’t know, grade inflation is the process by which students are given higher marks than their work justifies in order to make them feel better and to make it look as if the system is stronger than it is.

Its cricketing form is currently circulating in relation to the Dutch competition, where a group of clubs led by Salland are pushing for a restructuring which would double the number of pools in the Overgangsklasse (really the fourth division) from two to four, or from 16 teams to 32.

Not content with this, the proponents of the scheme are proposing that the third division (a.k.a. the Eerste Klasse) should be doubled from ten teams to 20 from 2025, with the Overgangsklasse then renamed the Tweede Klasse.

The effect of all this is to push teams which are not good enough to gain promotion by their own efforts on the field up the competition tree, so that they have the illusion that they are playing at a higher level when in fact all they are doing is lowering the overall standard.

It was a mistake which was made by the previous Board – full disclosure, of which I was a member – in 2016 when, against all advice from players and senior administrators, it increased the number of teams in the Topklasse from eight to ten.

The argument then was that it would relieve clubs’ fear of relegation, that it would encourage bringing more young players into sides, and that it would, feeding down the divisions, enable clubs to claim that they were playing at a higher level than they otherwise would have been.

But the truth is that it reduced the playing standard in the top divisions, and with a few notable exceptions, it has not increased clubs’ willingness to develop younger sides – you only had to watch last year’s Hoofdklasse final between Hermes-DVS and Quick Haag to register how few promising young players they have been able to produce.

The bogus claim in the new proposals that they are needed to enable talented cricketers to play at their true level conveniently ignores the fact that the KNCB has for decades operated a promotion-and-relegation system which means that if a team is good enough it can work its way up the divisions.

And that now goes double, with the separation last year of the promotion-and-relegation systems for 50-over and T20 cricket, which already meant that different sides (Salland and ACC respectively) dropped down to this season’s Hoofdklasse in the two formats.

So what is to be gained by elevating half the teams in last season’s Tweede Klasse into a new-look, four-pool Overgangsklasse?

Would Pool C, for example, really be stronger for the presence of Centurions 2, Kampong 4 and Salland 2, none of whom was able to finish higher than fourth in their Tweede Klasse group last year?

And what is the benefit to anyone, including the teams themselves, of saving from relegation Den Helder, Zwolle, Olympia and Wanica Star, all of whom finished bottom of their pools in last season’s Tweede Klasse?

The one positive thing which can be said about the scheme is that more teams in a division means that the pools can be structured to reduce travelling times, which is no inconsiderable factor in the lower levels of recreational cricket, which is, to be honest, what we’re talking about here.

Domestic cricket competitions in serious cricket nations – which, for the sake of argument, let us suppose the Netherlands to be – serve two purposes: they enable as many people as possible to enjoy a regular game of cricket at the appropriate level for their talent and skills, and they provide a framework for the most talented players to hone their skills, equipping them for the step up to the international stage.

It’s a fair question whether the Dutch domestic competition does the latter at all well.

Yes, more locally-produced players have made the grade recently than for a few years, with the likes of Bas de Leede, Vikram Singh and Aryan Dutt establishing themselves successfully in the national team, but overall the Topklasse competition contains too few local players of genuine quality to sustain ten teams: Salland were able to stay up for as long as they did by shipping in German internationals, other clubs have drawn in talent from Belgium, and still the average number of players capable of achieving a modest average of 20.00 with the bat or 25.00 with the ball is about eight per team.

That means that there are 30 or so players in the Topklasse every week who are basically making up the numbers, and it’s not as if there battalions of young cricketers in lower-division clubs being prevented from joining their ranks.

An ideal structure is a pyramid, attuned to the amount of talent available: in the Netherlands, with barely 2000 adult male players, that would probably be three top divisions of eight, two fourth-division pools of eight, and below that divisions of perhaps four pools, geographically organised as far as possible.

Roughly the system, in other words, we had between 2011 and 2016, before the Board listened to the siren’s first haunting cries.

Oh, and to that a sensible governing body would add a proper regional competition of, say, three teams, enabling the best players to strut their stuff in contests tougher than most matches in the club league are capable of being.

But one thing should be absolutely clear: you can’t turn a broom cupboard into a splendid dining room by changing the label on the door, all you do is re-emphasise the fact that it’s a broom cupboard.

Edwards, O’Dowd and Rutgers move to Kampong

Rod Lyall 17/11/23

The Topklasse will be the poorer for the loss of national team captain Scott Edwards and opener Max O’Dowd following the announcement from Hoofdklasse club Kampong Utrecht that the pair, along with Spanish national coach Corey Rutgers will be leaving VOC Rotterdam and playing at Maarschalkerweerd.

Edwards made 509 runs for the Bloodhounds last season at an average of 50.90, while O’Dowd contributed 482 at 43.82, 186 of them in one brutal early-season innings against ACC.

In all, O’Dowd has made 3455 runs in 90 matches for VOC at an average of 45.46, including seven centuries, and Edwards 2671 at 46.86 in 76 games, with three hundreds.

They will leave a significant gap in the Rotterdammers’ top order, which it will not be easy to fill; even with them in the side the batting has tended to show signs of brittleness under pressure, and the side finished sixth in last season’s championship play-off.

For Kampong, on the other hand, the arrival of the two international stars will seriously strengthen their challenge for promotion to the Topklasse in 2025.

They were widely seen as somewhat unfortunate to be relegated from the twelve-team Topklasse in 2022, and they finished a creditable fourth in the Hoofklasse last season.

Edwards and O’Dowd will join national A-squad players Alex Roy and Pierre Jacod and under-18 seamer Gert Swanepoel at Maarschalkerweerd, and while they will miss parts of what promises to be another busy season because of their national team commitments, they are likely to cause plenty of headaches for opposing attacks in the matches they do play.

In statements on the Kampong website all three players stress the family-friendly atmosphere, the facilities and the ambitions of the Utrecht club, which (like VOC) boasts a turf square and hosts matches of the national men’s and women’s teams.

Topklasse Team of the Year 2023

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.

Tayo Walbrugh

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.

Saqib Zulfiqar

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.

Martijn Snoep

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

Hermes and Quick lock horns in final promotion battle

Rod Lyall 01/09/23

If the semi-final between Hermes-DVS and Quick Haag fortnight ago is any guide, then the Hoofdklasse grand final at Sportpark Harga on Saturday, which will determine which of the two sides returns to the Topklasse next season, should be a cracker.

Then it took a Nick Statham boundary off the final ball of the match to decide the outcome, Hermes winning by one wicket, and across the two formats the teams have been evenly matched all season, Hermes having won three of their five head-to-head meetings and Quick two.

Hermes have already secured a place in next year’s Topklasse T20 Cup, having beaten their rivals fairly comfortably in the final, and will be out to make it a double on Saturday.

Leading the charge will be two of their three overseas players: 19-year-old South African Ashley Ostling, the side’s leading run-scorer with 567 at an average of 43.62, and Spanish international Daniel Doyle Calle; New Zealander Will Hamilton is injured and will take no part.

But Quick’s attack will still need to contain Ostling and Doyle effectively if they are to have a realistic chance of taking the title and earning promotion.

Quick, though, have two outstanding overseas players of their own, not least Otago’s left-handed opener Cameron Jackson, whose 164-ball 223 last week snuffed out Kampong Utrecht’s hopes of making it to the grand final.

Jackson leads the Hoofdklasse batting aggregates with 890 runs at 68.46, closely followed by team-mate Beckham Wheeler Greenall with 768 at 69.82.

If the Hermes trio are crucial to their side’s chances, Jackson and Wheeler Greenall are scarcely less so for Quick, and early wickets will be vital in both innings.

One somewhat disturbing feature of the match is how little Dutch-produced young talent will be on display: of Hermes’ likely squad six were in the club’s side in or before their most recent appearance in the Topklasse in 2017, while in Quick’s case eight had played before their relegation in 2019.

The Father of the Hermes team is 48-year-old Statham, who made his top-flight debut in 1989 and who has notched up 11,175 runs in his 482 matches, while his opposite number at Quick is fellow former international Henk Mol, two years younger, with 7352 runs and 413 wickets in 365 games.

Mol is still taking wickets, his tally of 20 this season just one behind that of Quick’s leading wicket-taker Jeroen Brand, but the top wicket-taker in the competition is Hermes’ Sahil Kothari with 29.

With Dutch A-team captain Sebastiaan Braat – who also skippers the side – and brothers Olivier and Ralph Elenbaas in the attack, backed up by Roy Numair and Davey Verweij, Hermes probably have the more incisive bowling unit.

As against that, alongside Jackson and Wheeler Greenall Quick’s batting line-up includes skipper Daan Vierling, Lesley Stokkers, Bobby van Gigch, allrounder Brand and perhaps Henk Mol’s brother Geert Maarten, totalling close to a thousand top-flight matches between them, so there will be no lack of experience on either side.

Having taken the Hoofdklasse title last year, when there was no promotion to the Topklasse, Hermes have a point to prove, while Quick’s demolition of Kampong last week indicates that the Schiedammers are unlikely to have things all their own way.

Scorecard | VCC vs HCC | 26.08.23

Voorburg I Vs HCC I
1-Innings Match Played At Westvliet, Voorburg, 26-Aug-2023, Topklasse
Voorburg I Win by 140 runs
Round GF
Toss won by Voorburg I
Umpires NR Bathi – WPM van Liemt – M Prabhudesai
Scorers CC Schinkel – K Pattiselanno
Home Side Voorburg I
Points Awarded Voorburg I 2, HCC I 0
Voorburg I 1st Innings 295/7 Closed (Overs 50)
Batter Fielder Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s
ML Levitt   b DT Doram 102 119 12 1
N Gigani   b HC Overdijk 4 7 1 0
MN Ahmad c C Floyd b P Charumbira 78 106 6 1
NRJ Croes+ c P Charumbira b HC Overdijk 36 27 3 0
SA Engelbrecht* lbw b DT Doram 20 10 2 1
S Ahmad c P Charumbira b C Floyd 8 11 0 0
R Klein   c&b HC Overdijk 24 14 2 1
GK Nieuwoudt not out   9 6 0 0
PRP Boissevain not out   1 1 0 0
VJ Kingma dnb          
MC van Vliet dnb          
extras   (b0 lb3 w9 nb1) 13      
TOTAL   7 wickets for 295      
FOW
1-12(N Gigani) 2-195(MN Ahmad) 3-201(ML Levitt) 4-223(SA Engelbrecht) 5-237(S Ahmad) 6-263(NRJ Croes) 7-290(R Klein)
Bowler Overs Maid Runs Wkts wd nb
HC Overdijk 10 0 78 3 2 –
DD Crowley 7 0 38 0 2 –
H Venter 8 0 30 0 4 –
C Floyd 10 0 60 1 1 –
DT Doram 10 1 49 2 – 1
P Charumbira 5 0 37 1 – –
HCC I 1st Innings 155/10 All Out (Overs 38.3)
Batter Fielder Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s
JD Vandiar c SA Engelbrecht b VJ Kingma 7 20 1 0
AJ Staal c MN Ahmad b R Klein 36 52 4 1
MR Alphonse+   b R Klein 8 33 0 0
BHG Gorlee* c NRJ Croes b R Klein 39 47 2 0
TP Kloppenburg   b S Ahmad 3 7 0 0
C Floyd   b VJ Kingma 19 32 2 0
HC Overdijk st NRJ Croes b S Ahmad 24 21 3 0
P Charumbira   b R Klein 0 1 0 0
DT Doram not out   5 14 0 0
DD Crowley   b R Klein 0 4 0 0
H Venter   b R Klein 0 1 0 0
extras   (b1 lb7 w5 nb1) 14      
TOTAL   10 wickets for 155      
FOW
1-22(JD Vandiar) 2-56(MR Alphonse) 3-63(AJ Staal) 4-70(TP Kloppenburg) 5-116(C Floyd) 6-142(BHG Gorlee) 7-142(P Charumbira) 8-154(HC Overdijk) 9-155(DD Crowley) 10-155(H Venter)
Bowler Overs Maid Runs Wkts wd nb
VJ Kingma 7 1 27 2 1 –
GK Nieuwoudt 8 2 39 0 1 1
R Klein 7.3 0 15 6 2 –
MC van Vliet 6 0 23 0 1 –
S Ahmad 6 0 24 2 – –
PRP Boissevain 4 0 19 0 – –