In a Hoofdklasse competition which seems likely to be more even than it has been for years, one of the key questions is whether VRA Amsterdam and VOC Rotterdam will be able to maintain the dominance they have exercised in recent seasons.

VOC have played second fiddle to the Amsterdam club during this period, finishing just one game off the lead in 2006 and then falling to Voorburg in the most dramatic circumstances at the semi-final stage last year, and they must be hoping that changes at VRA will work in their favour this season.

They will be without coach Xavier Doherty, whose 45 wickets at 9.76 and 648 runs at 43.20 was a crucial factor in their success last year, and at this stage, a week before the start of the competition, have not yet succeeding in finding a successor.

The batting line-up will still be strong, with skipper Bas Zuiderent, who has recently been in great form for the national side, openers Maarten van Ierschot and Toni Barca, and the promising 21-year-old Daan van Everdingen, who played several significant innings in last season’s competition and will be looking to make further progress in 2008.

There is good news for the club in the acquisition of an Australian exchange player in 18-year-old Tasmanian batsman Sam Hoggett and in the return of former international allrounder Chris Smith, who played a key role in 2006 with 32 wickets and 351 runs at 35.10 but who was unavailable for the whole of last season.

He will strengthen both the middle order and the seam attack, the latter department being one where the Rotterdam club struggled a bit last season.

Smith will sharpen an attack which already includes Ernst van Giezen, Reinhout van Ierschot and Jelte Schoonheim. Ben Goedegebuur also returns, while the club will be looking for more progress from Nabeel Siddiqie, who played a couple of Hoofdklasse matches at the end of last season, and from Michiel Vis.

Another acquisition over the winter is Maninder Singh, who has moved from VVV Amsterdam, and becomes the third leg-spinner in the squad alongside Asaf Altaf and Koen van Everdingen. Karel Vieler is said to have benefited from a winter in New Zealand, and his slow left-arm bowling may give Zuiderent another option in the attack.

Even without a coach, VOC possess plenty of strength in depth, and they remain a good bet for a spot in the play-offs.

For VRA, on the other hand, 2008 seems likely to prove a season of rebuilding.

The most significant loss is that of Darrin Murray, who has stepped down as captain and is likely to play only a handful of Hoofdklasse matches. The side will miss both his leadership on and off the field and his capacity for playing crucial innings, but new skipper Peter Borren will be determined to fulfill both roles.

The champions will also be without middle-order batsman Garth Brown, who has returned to England, and long-serving seamer Joost Leemhuis, who played only occasionally last year but whose accurate bowling proved a valuable asset at the business-end of the season.

On the plus side, wicketkeeper Danny Thampinayagam, who played for the Amsterdam club throughout the 1990s and who has more than 270 victims to his name, returns from Hermes-DVS Schiedam, and his presence behind the stumps will release Wesley Barresi to concentrate on his batting.

VRA have also gained a Danish-born seamer in Daniel Nielsen, and an outstanding teenage prospect in Afghan-born Khalid Qasimyar, who will probably play mainly in the seconds but who appears to be a name to look out for in future.

Although the days are gone when VRA were able to field ten batsmen with Hoofdklasse fifties to their credit, a top order comprising Tjade Groot, Barresi, Eric Szwarczynski, Borren, coach Ryan Maron – who topped the Hoofdklasse aggregates last year with 851 runs and returns for a third season – and Adeel Raja remains a formidable force.

The squad will also have a strong spin department, with Raja, Mangesh Panchal, the emerging leg-spinner Vinoo Tewarie, and Jeroen Oskam, who claimed 59 wickets between them last season.

The main question marks concern the lower-middle order in the batting, and a seam attack which is unquestionably poorer for the absence of Victor Grandia, who seems likely to play occasionally at best. Sohail Bhatti will again be the main strike bowler, with support from Borren, Nielsen and Szwarczynski, and probably one or other of Remco de Graaff, Zaheer Butt and Dilip Samuel.

It would be foolish to write off either of these sides, especially since they are the only two in the Hoofdklasse who have the benefit of playing their home games on turf pitches, and both have sufficient quality players to ensure that they are in the hunt for a semi-final place at the end of August.

But it would not be surprising if they had things less their own way this time than has been true for the past couple of years.