Assupol Tuks won the Varsity Cricket Tournament on three occasions in the last four years which is undoubtedly an impressive statistic but the hunger to be the best remains. 

So don't expect the team to rest on their laurels from Monday in Potchefstroom. It is going to be business as usual when they take on Maties in their first Varsity encounter. One thing is sure.  No player will lack motivation as Assupol Tuks is celebrating a "Century of Excellence".

The one thing Kruger van Wyk (head coach) kept on emphasizing in the build-up to the tournament is that in Varsity T20-cricket there is never such a thing as an easy game. 

What undoubtedly counts in Assupol Tuks favour is that seven of last year's winning team is still playing. There is no substitute for onfield experience. 

Neil Brand still being the team's captain can be compared to the team having the proverbial ace up its sleeve. Last year Brand distinguished him as a match-winner without equal. Hardly a game had gone by in which he did not contribute with bat or ball in hand. 

During last year's Varsity Tournament he scored 300 runs at an average of 42.9 and took nine wickets. His best performance was in the final against Northwest where he scored 59 runs facing 57 balls.

Ruben Trumpelmann, who is Assupol Tuks's cricketer of the year, has fine-tuned the art of impacting on the outcome of any game. During one of this week's warmup games, he impressed with the ease with which he is able to hit sixes. He can wreak even greater havoc with the ball in hand. 

Frankie van Heerden who this season scored 188 runs in the Northerns Cricket Premier League Qualifiers as well as 853 runs in the Premier League is a batsman who can win matches for his team on any day.

At the beginning of last year, Nkosinathi Mszia had a sitdown conversation with Van Wyk in which he explained his goal is to become a spin bowler who is feared by any batsman. Through hours of hard work in the nets, he has managed to do so. 

An impressive statistic about Assupol Tuks's dominance of Varsity Cricket is that since 2015 three of the team's players went on to play for the Proteas. One of them, Aiden Markram, even captained the national side. Lungi Ngidi and Heinrich Klaasen are also currently in the Protea squad. 

In 2015's Varsity- final Assupol Tuks managed to beat Maties by five wickets; 2016 they were victorious against UWC winning by 21 runs. Last year the team managed to beat Northwest by five wickets which could be seen as revenge for the defeat they suffered in 2017 against the team from Potchefstroom.

The Assupol Tuks squad for this tournament is Neil Brand (captain), Donovan Ferreira, Rubin Hermann, Ruben Trumpelmann, Ruan de Swardt, Jiveshen Pillay, Frankie van Heerden, Nkosinathi Msiza, Bonga Chepkonga, Aron Visser, Litheko Modiri, Sean Gilson,
Kundai Matigimu and Nico van Zyl.