UWC alumnus, academic and seasoned sport administrator, Advocate Nicolas Kock, has been elected, unopposed, as the president of the Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA).

At a special meeting of the WPCA general council on Monday night, Kock succeeded Beresford Williams who was recently named vice president of Cricket South Africa. Kock has served on the WPCA board with distinction for 13 years - eight years of which as vice-president.

A law graduate who is currently working as a lecturer at UWC’s Institute for Social Development, Kock also serves as the chairperson of the University’s Rugby Football Club and is the executive director of the Sport Skills for Life Skills (SS4LS) programme - one of the most sought after and esteemed initiatives of holistic cricket, career and community development in the country.

Kock told the WPCA that it is a great honour to be appointed as president, and listed two major challenges facing the association. “The first one is stadium development, which is probably, in the cricketing context, the biggest challenge in South African history that an association has attempted to tackle. If we manage to pull it off, it will provide us with a cornerstone of sustainability going forward, for club cricket and cricket as a whole in the Western Cape region,” Kock said.

“The second challenge is our municipal cricketing facilities and their maintenance. Some facilities have already been closed down, affected by drought. Security and maintenance issues, coupled with the overuse of club facilities, affected their ability to function properly. We have to sit down with all stakeholders to identify an equitable solution which will be beneficial to all.”