After more than a decade of professional cricket, the North West Dragons and former Lions wicket-keeper batsman and captain, Nicky van den Bergh (34), has hung up his cricketing spikes.
The closing of one door at North West Cricket has opened up another for one of Potch’s most well-known cricketing exports. Van den Bergh will exchange his whites, bat and gloves for a suit and tie as North West Cricket’s new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) from 1 September this year.
This new role is as perfect a fit as his wicket-keeping gloves once were.
Nicky van den Bergh career stats: ESPNCricinfo
Success follows this positive and pragmatic leader of men and there is no doubt he will want to make sure that North West Cricket becomes a major success story in the South African cricket landscape.
“I’ve always wanted to stay in cricket after retiring from the game. The CCO job will give me an opportunity to perform as a high-level consultant for North West Cricket from a commercial, sponsorship and relationship point of view. I also have to be more available alongside my full-time legal position as a partner and director at De Villiers Attorneys. This makes it an ideal time to take on this new position at North West Cricket,” added Van den Bergh.
Van den Bergh is an attorney by trade specialising in commercial law which makes his appointment at North West Cricket a no-brainer.
He highlights this new position as an exciting new chapter in his life long journey with North West Cricket. That journey already started as a schoolboy cricketer at Laerskool Baillie Park and Potchefstroom Gimnasium.
“I really look forward to seeing the Dragons become a true force in South African Cricket. As a division 1 side the aim should be to win and challenge the top teams. Potchefstroom will naturally support a team that wins and attracts big name players, like Sen Muthusamy, who is part of the Proteas set-up,” added Van den Bergh.
The former NWU alumni also mentioned the importance of a solid working relationship between North West Cricket and the North-West University and how this can be beneficial to both parties.
“The NWU is a strong commercial entity and from a sporting point of view as well. The NWU can benefit from a strong setup at North West Cricket as a division 1 team and vice versa.”
Van den Bergh also emphasised the importance of branding, exposure and content creation to take North West Cricket to the next commercial level.
The last two seasons has been quite frustrating for Van den Bergh, who moved from the Lions ahead of the 2021/22 season. When the Dragons were included as one of the 8 teams in division 1, Van den Bergh, was the obvious name on the team sheet to lead the new era.
Injuries though frustratingly kept him out of the picture just when he seemed to find good form. His concurrent injuries were also one of the reasons he decided to hang up his boots.
“In my first year back, I had a couple of niggles. I played three four-day games and was in good form, but then I tore my calf against the Warriors. I also broke my shoulder against Western Province, whilst fielding which kept me out for a couple of months. I also snapped my hamstring last season, which was really difficult to take, especially after I had done a lot of rehab,” remembers Van den Bergh.
It is fitting that Van den Bergh played his last professional game in Potchefstroom, a 109-run win against the Knights on 4 December 2022.
Some of his favourite cricketing moments occurred in Potch – such as a famous 4-day series win in 2018/19 with the Lions.
The Lions won the last game of the season against the Warriors with Wihan Lubbe (current NW Dragons captain) taking the final wicket, with just nine deliveries left in the game.
“That was really special to cap off a great season. I was also the Lions’ leading run-scorer that year and also hit a double century (217*) with the bat,” states Van den Bergh, who had a fantastic trophy laden run with a superb Lions franchise, that included to Proteas such as Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen and Kagiso Rabada.
Van den Bergh will now have more time to spend with his wife, Liane as well as his two kids, Jack (3) and Ava (5).
“I am really looking forward to spend more time with my family especially over December, which was a time I used to play cricket,” he added.
In a statement he released last week, he also mentioned the impact that a long list of various coaches, players, administators, friends and family had in his time as a professional cricket.
Law and cricket have been interwoven in Van den Bergh’s life since he matriculated at Potch Gimmies. His dad encouraged him to pursue a professional qualification, whilst at the same time also giving him enough scope to play the game of cricket. Now 16 years later, Van den Bergh is in the privileged position of having a degree and a highlight-filled cricket career, which continues into the new sphere of cricket administration.
“Law was something I could study, whilst still being able to spend time away from classes to play cricket. It turned out great, and now I truly enjoy what I do for a living.”
