Neil Gill hopes return of "match-winner" Jason van der Merwe can help Muckamore become established Premier League outfit

​The County Antrim side booked a deserved top-flight spot for their 150th anniversary year by going through Section One unbeaten last term, remarkably winning all 18 matches, and start the season with a home clash against 31-time league champions Waringstown this afternoon.

Van der Merwe’s return after over a decade at CSNI and CIYMS, where the former Ireland youth international won every trophy available to him, marks a significant coup for Muckamore with the 32-year-old scoring 879 runs at an average of 51.71, including two centuries and six fifties, last season, according to CricketEurope’s StatsZone.

Gill believes his winter arrival, alongside the likes of Curtis Moorhead and Jamie Magowan from relegated Derriaghy, can help bring the club to another level.

"It's well known that I've tried many times to get Jason back,” he laughed. “He was away for 12 years and I must have tried him on five or six occasions!

"He made the right decision in staying away because he won everything there is to win in the game.

"He has been a crucial part in that success because he's a match-winner.

"It brings everyone up a level and I think Muckamore need to build a team around Jason over the next 10 years.

"He's 32 so I look to him as a future captain and he needs to be the heartbeat of our side going forward.

"We have fielding sessions and Jason is diving full length, taking one-handed catches and has a bullet arm.

"When he goes to bat, the guys are in awe of him because he's absolute quality.

"I asked him what he averaged last season but he didn't know - he just goes on matches that he wins.

"That shows you a bit about him and I'm delighted to get him over the line.

"We need to keep building every year. My ambition this season is to get to a cup final and be in the top-half.”

Having worked hard to get back into the Premiership, Gill feels the club are now in a good position to stay there for the foreseeable future with progress made on and off the pitch.

"We've been known as a yo-yo club being up and down over the years - I think the most we stayed up was two seasons in 2018 and 2019, but now we're up to stay up and have a team that can compete with anyone on our day,” he added. “There's no hiding away that there's investment from Premier League clubs in players.

“As much as I mightn't be a big fan of it, you either sink or swim and thankfully our club have come round to the way of thinking that this is what it takes to stay in the Premier League.

"The whole profile of the club is raised when you're playing in the Premier League and we're doing lots off the pitch with NVPlay cameras, podcasts, getting more sponsorship with being back up - it raises everything.

"You have to invest, but that's how we'll stay in the league and I think every team knows that - it's not rocket science."