Cape Cobras duo Sybrand Engelbrecht and Rasheed Lewis will play and coach club cricket respectively for the next three months in the Netherlands.
They will continue their cricket association in The Hague where Engelbrecht will represent the club HBS Craeyenhout, Koninklijke Haagse Cricket & Voetbalvereniging where Lewis is based as coach during the South African winter.
Lewis, also coach at Western Province Cricket Club, has done some of the organisational work to set up Engelbrecht’s short stint in The Hague.
‘It is about a new experience in a new environment,’ said Engelbrecht about his new challenge.
The off-spinner and right-handed batsman acknowledged that he made major advances the past six months. He featured regularly in all three formats for the Cape Cobras.
‘The highlight the past season was featuring for the Nashua Cape Cobras in the final of the Momentum One Day Cup competition despite the fact that we did not win it. I was also part of the team in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge,’ he said.
Engelbrecht bowled expertly in the initial stages of the Ram Slam T20 Challenge in tandem with George Linde to unsettle opponents in the middle-period.
He also showed his mettle with bat and ball in the Momentum One Day Cup competition. The all-rounder reflected with a certain degree of joy on his relationship with the Cobras coach, Paul Adams, and captain, Justin Ontong.
He said the fact that both backed him and wanted him to play, was a confidence-booster during the past season. Engelbrecht averaged 30.75 with the bat in the Momentum One Day Cup competition.
He would still like to improve his consistency with bat and ball in all competitions, but especially in the Sunfoil Series, where his best contribution was 72 while featuring in a partnership with Dane Vilas.
