ROTTERDAM, 12 May 2026 – Rotterdam is getting its own cricket franchise in the European T20 Premier League, Europe’s first ICC-sanctioned T20 franchise league. The new competition starts in 2026 and brings Rotterdam into a six-city tournament alongside Amsterdam, Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow. 

The Rotterdam team is backed by major names from international cricket. South African cricketers Jonty Rhodes, Faf du Plessis and Heinrich Klaasen have formed a consortium to acquire the Rotterdam franchise, with Indian businessman Madhukar Shree joining as managing partner. 

Rotterdam joins European cricket

The European T20 Premier League, or ETPL, is being developed with Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association (KNCB). The league is set up as a city-based franchise competition, following the model that has made T20 cricket a major commercial force in countries such as India, Australia and South Africa.

For Rotterdam, the arrival of a franchise adds the city to a fast-growing sports market with large audiences in India, South Africa, the United Kingdom and other cricket-following countries. It also puts our city next to Amsterdam as one of the Dutch anchors in the new competition. 

South African stars lead team

Faf du Plessis will not only co-own the Rotterdam franchise, but also captain the side in the inaugural season. He brings years of experience from international cricket and franchise leagues around the world. (KNCB)

Jonty Rhodes and Heinrich Klaasen add further profile. Rhodes is widely known as one of cricket’s great fielders, while Klaasen is an active South African international with a strong reputation in the T20 format. Together, the three give Rotterdam immediate name recognition in the global cricket community.

League starts in late summer

The inaugural ETPL season is scheduled from 26 August to 20 September 2026. According to KNCB, the competition will feature 33 matches across six city-based franchises: Glasgow, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast and Rotterdam. 

The league has already attracted several familiar cricket names. Reuters reports that former India captain Rahul Dravid is involved with the Dublin franchise, Chris Gayle co-owns Glasgow, Glenn Maxwell is connected to Belfast, Steve Waugh is part of the Amsterdam ownership group, while Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills are behind Edinburgh.

Cricket builds local links

The Rotterdam franchise is not being presented as only an international sports project. The organisation says Team Rotterdam wants to create local impact by connecting sport, business, international communities and the city’s identity as a port and trading hub.

That makes the choice of Rotterdam easy to understand. This is a city built on movement, migration, trade and ambition, so a sport with strong roots in South Asia, Southern Africa, the UK and the Caribbean fits more naturally here than some people might expect.

Delegation visits Rotterdam

On Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 May, a delegation is visiting sporting and business locations across Rotterdam. The programme includes a photo moment in the city, meetings with Rotterdam sports organisations, a gathering with entrepreneurs, a workshop for children at VOC and an exclusive B2B event.

VOC, one of the best-known cricket clubs in the Rotterdam region, gives the visit a local sporting base. The children’s workshop also points to one of the more interesting parts of this story: whether an international franchise can help grow cricket among young people in and around Rotterdam.

KNCB sees growth potential

KNCB chief executive Huib van Walsem sees the Rotterdam ownership group as a positive development for Dutch cricket. He says the involvement of experienced cricket figures can help attract competitive cricket and quality talent to the region. 

The Dutch cricket association also sees a possible link with grassroots development and clearer pathways for young players. That local pathway will matter if the Rotterdam franchise is to become more than a name on an international fixture list.

Rotterdam gains global visibility

The arrival of the Rotterdam cricket franchise gives the city another international sports story, but this one is slightly different from the usual football-first conversation. Cricket may still be niche in much of the Netherlands, but globally it has a massive audience and T20 is the format built for speed, entertainment and broadcast appeal.

For Rotterdam, the question now is what the franchise becomes locally. If Team Rotterdam can connect international ownership, local clubs, young players and the city’s business community, this could become a useful bridge between Rotterdam and cricket markets far beyond the Netherlands. Not bad for a sport some Rotterdammers still need explained over coffee.

ROTTERDAM, 2 April 2026 – Hundreds of Rotterdammers are expected to take on a new fundraising sports event this summer, as TriALSlon combines swimming, water cycling and running in support of ALS research. The event will take place on 11 July at the Willem-Alexander Baan and aims to raise money for Stichting ALS Nederland.

_{Image: Initiators Barry Lassche (front), Lucille Luijkx (centre) and the dog (rear) cycle through a typically Dutch landscape.}

TriALSlon gives Rotterdam a charity event with a distinctly local twist. Instead of a standard triathlon, this one puts the spotlight on the water, with teams competing in a relay made up of 500 metres of swimming, 2,500 metres of water cycling and 5,000 metres of running.

The initiative comes from HAL Investments, which says the event was created in response to the impact ALS has had within the company. As a Rotterdam-based business, the organisers wanted the event to take shape here in the city. The hope is to draw in both companies and private participants, all raising money through their own networks for Stichting ALS Nederland.

Why this event matters

Behind the sporting challenge sits a much more serious purpose. ALS is a fatal neurological and muscular disease, and the organisers say there is still no adequate treatment. That urgency runs through the event from the start.

Lucille Luijkx, the wife of HAL employee and project leader Barry Lassche, has been living with ALS since 2003. She said: “ALS is heavy because muscles fail one by one. I am lucky that I have remained virtually stable for a very long time and can now commit myself to this beautiful event. Focus on what is possible. At the moment there is still no adequate treatment, but thanks to new research techniques we are on the eve of a possible breakthrough. Support this event and the participants with a donation, because only together can we provide a medicine against this merciless disease. Every euro counts. There is no time to lose!”

A relay with a Rotterdam edge

The setting helps give TriALSlon its own identity. The Willem-Alexander Baan is already one of the city’s best-known watersports locations, and the organisers are clearly leaning into Rotterdam’s relationship with water and maritime history.

Barry Lassche said: “We hope for a sporting festival atmosphere, with the relay as the attractive main programme. Our goal is to make it a memorable day for both participants and spectators. With a nod to our maritime history, the battle on and around the water takes centre stage.” He added that companies including SBM Offshore, Boskalis, Vopak and FD Mediagroep have already committed their support.

Familiar names join the challenge

The event will also feature a few recognisable Dutch names. Natasja Froger, who has long been involved as an ambassador for Stichting ALS Nederland, is taking part, alongside RTL Boulevard presenter Rob Goossens.

For an international Rotterdam audience, those names may not mean much on their own, but in Dutch media terms they help raise the event’s profile. Froger is known nationally for her long-running charity work and television appearances, while Goossens is a familiar entertainment commentator on one of the country’s biggest showbusiness programmes.

Aiming for more than one edition

Stichting ALS Nederland says it has seen growing interest in sports-based fundraising in recent years, and it hopes TriALSlon will become part of that momentum. Director Limore Noach said the foundation was pleased when HAL Investments approached it with the idea and is looking forward to taking on the fight against ALS together in Rotterdam.

The organisers are already thinking beyond this first edition. If participation is strong and the fundraising target is met, TriALSlon could become an annual Rotterdam event, giving the city a recurring summer challenge built around sport, solidarity and medical research.

How to get there

TriALSlon takes place at the Willem-Alexander Baan in Rotterdam, the rowing course on the eastern side of the city near Zevenkamp and Nesselande. If you are coming by metro, the nearest connections are in the direction of Nesselande, with the final stretch easiest by bike, car or local transport depending on where you are starting from. It is very much a destination venue rather than a city-centre event site, so it is worth planning your route in advance.

More information

Supporters can sponsor teams via https://trialslon.nl, and for those who move quickly, taking part as a team of three is still one of the options.

ROTTERDAM, 7 April 2026 – Nearly 100 runners from Rotterdam will head to Greece this autumn to run the Athens Marathon, the centrepiece of a jubilee year marking 25 years of Rotterdam Running Ambassadors. The anniversary links Rotterdam’s own marathon culture to the race’s legendary origins, while also reflecting the club’s unusual mix of sport, business and city pride.

_{Caption: Rotterdam Running Ambassadors gather by the Maas with the Erasmus Bridge and Rotterdam skyline in view.}

For a city that takes running seriously, this feels like a fitting way to mark a milestone. Rotterdam Running Ambassadors, often shortened to RRA, is celebrating its fifth lustrum in 2026 with a trip to Athens, where members will run the historic route associated with Pheidippides, the messenger whose story still sits at the heart of marathon mythology.

The choice of destination is no accident. Alongside the NN Marathon Rotterdam, the Athens Marathon, The Authentic forms part of a special anniversary year for the club, giving the group a symbolic return to where the marathon story began.

A Rotterdam network in running shoes

Rotterdam Running Ambassadors began with a simple idea: networking works differently when you are moving. Instead of drinks receptions or breakfast meetings, the concept was built around running together, with the belief that shared effort creates a different kind of connection.

More than two decades ago, the Municipality of Rotterdam, the Chamber of Commerce and the Port of Rotterdam Authority helped lay the foundations for the organisation. What emerged was not a standard business club, but a running club with two anchor marathons each year: one in Rotterdam and one in a city that matters to Rotterdam in an international sense.

From Rotterdam to the world

Over the years, RRA members have run marathons in cities including Chicago, Shanghai, New York, Boston, Istanbul, Cape Town, Havana, Málaga, Lyon and Antwerp. The format has remained consistent: travel, run, connect and carry Rotterdam with you.

That mix of civic identity and professional exchange still defines the club. Members come from a wide range of backgrounds, including senior managers, doctors, entrepreneurs and public administrators, but the organisation presents running as the thing that levels the field.

Why the club still matters

According to chairman Karsten Uil, that equality is exactly what gives the group its strength. He said: “There is something cleansing about running gear: whether you are the chief executive of a multinational or running your own business, at training you are simply a runner.”

That creates a form of connection that can be hard to replicate elsewhere. For RRA, the value lies less in formal titles and more in the experience of training together, finishing together and sharing a clear affection for Rotterdam.

Athens as the anniversary highlight

In 2026, that shared experience will culminate in Athens, where close to 100 Rotterdam runners are expected to take on Athens Marathon, The Authentic. The race follows the historic route tied to the original marathon legend and finishes inside the Panathenaic Stadium, the marble stadium that hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

For Rotterdam, there is something neat about that pairing. One of Europe’s best-known city marathons now meets the race’s origin story, with a Rotterdam network carrying its anniversary year onto one of the most symbolically loaded courses in world running.

A club built around Rotterdam

RRA describes itself as a marathon club for the Rotterdam region, with around 100 members from different professions and sectors. What unites them is the idea that, from their leadership roles or independent positions, they can contribute to the development and promotion of the city.

The Marathon Rotterdam remains the heart of the club. The challenge, the experience and the sense of finishing together are presented as the basis for respect, connection and friendship, giving the organisation a character that is part sports club, part business network and very clearly rooted in Rotterdam.

HAPPENING 1 MAR '26 | Jazz Yoga Rotterdam is back at LantarenVenster with a spring edition (lente-editie) on Sunday 1 March. You’ll do a full yoga session in zaal 1 while a live Codarts jazz combo plays on stage.

_{Photography: Penyue Yang}

Spring edition on 1 March

The format is built around one simple idea: you roll out your mat in the main hall and move through the session while the musicians shape the room’s mood with live soundscapes and grooves. LantarenVenster lists the session in zaal 1, with Suzanne Kipping leading the yoga and Codarts musicians providing the live jazz set. This upcoming edition starts at 09:30, runs for 90 minutes, costs €15, and has space for 75 participants. You’re asked to bring your own yoga mat.

Jazz Yoga has already shown it can pull a crowd here. An earlier edition ran in November 2025 during LantarenVenster’s anniversary weekend and was listed as sold out. This new spring edition is presented as a follow-up to that demand, keeping the same core set-up: zaal 1, a live jazz combo from Codarts, and a guided yoga flow led by Kipping.

Musicians and yoga teacher on stage

Suzanne Kipping leads the session. Suzanne is a Rotterdam-based singer, composer, theatre maker, performer and DJ. She started practising meditation and yoga out of curiosity, looking for new ways to balance body and mind, and later trained as a yoga instructor. The live jazz musicians performing include Hugo Kurstjens (bass guitar), Joep Grotendorst (tenor sax), and Philip Kurstjens (guitar).

Suzanne Kipping is the yoga teacher leading Jazz Yoga at LantarenVenster.

LantarenVenster positions the session as a calm reset without turning it into a concert you sit and watch. You’re part of it the whole way through, moving with the music rather than treating it as background.

Tickets and practical notes

Tickets are sold through LantarenVenster’s programme page, where you can buy online and receive e-tickets by email. If you use Rotterdampas, LantarenVenster notes that you can order tickets online when available and receive the action ticket details alongside your booking. The full event page is here: https://www.lantarenvenster.nl/programma/jazz-yoga/

How to get there

LantarenVenster sits on the Wilhelminapier at Kop van Zuid, an easy hop on the metro to Wilhelminaplein and then a short walk towards the waterfront. If you’re cycling, you can lock up right on the pier near the entrance.

If you arrive a little early, you’re in a classic Rotterdam setting: Rijnhaven views, high-rises around Montevideo and New Orleans, and plenty of space to ease into the morning before you roll out your mat.