Only a few months ago, V.O.C. Rotterdam from the Netherlands were crowned Kings of European cricket when they won the first edition of the European Cricket League (ECL) in magnificent fashion at La Manga Club in Spain.
Naturally, the “Kings of Europe”, V.O.C. Rotterdam will automatically return to defend their majestic trophy between May 31 and June 7, 2020. Full of confidence after their European success, V.O.C. also took domestic honours as well, beating HBS Cricket Club in the Netherlands T20 final.
And V.O.C. Rotterdam will strongly fancy their chances of successfully defending their trophy and starting a European dynasty. V.O.C boast three key members of the Netherlands side that won the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier in November. The talented Netherlands side romped to victory earlier this month in Dubai, coached by ECL19 expert analyst and commentator Ryan Campbell and ably led by skipper Pieter Seelaar, with opener Max O’Dowd and wicket keeper Scott Edwards also playing important roles.
The Dutch playing trio went into the prestigious ICC tournament buoyed by their exploits at ECL19 where O’Dowd won the Player of the Tournament. Not to be outdone, Edwards blasted scintillating batting records in the ECL19 final with an unbeaten 137 off just 39 balls (including 18 sixes) as Rotterdam posted 222 for no loss off 10 overs. O’Dowd racked up 74 off 25 balls from the other end, which astonishingly paled a little into insignificance compared to Edwards’ electrified hitting.
And the second-staging of the tournament - ECL20 - promises to be even bigger and better. Due to huge interest and demand for the competition, ECL20 will expand its number of champion teams - spread over eight days of exciting fast-paced T10 action. Of course, it goes without saying that HBS CC will join V.O.C. at ECL20 as Dutch representatives. From now on, the federation boasting the reigning Kings have two teams representing them in the ECL the following year.
We welcome V.O.C. Rotterdam back to the 2020 European Cricket League as defending “Kings of Europe.”