After being a member for 6 years and leading Voorburg Cricket Club for 4 years, Kobus Nel returned to South Africa with his family. This brings to an end an impressive period that began in 2020. Impressive because Kobus had to deal with Covid with the incoming administration, which did not help preserve the all-important association ties. But we left the pandemic behind and gradually Kobus implemented a culture of calm and trust, where everything was negotiable, but always with respect for the other. This is a process that did not happen naturally, nor is it ever finished, but in which many beautiful steps have been made. As in high performance (VCC men’s and women’s national champions), and infrastructure (realization indoor hall). Did Kobus do that all by himself? No, of course not, but Kobus always knew how to empower others and make them shine and was content for himself to play a role in the background. And do you realize how difficult that is when you don’t know precisely all those little customs, those little habits and actions in a “foreign” environment. Culture is a special thing, and we Dutch are no exception!
At last week’s AGM, Kobus delivered another fine boating welcome speech online, bringing an era to an end. VCC is immensely grateful to Kobus for his immeasurable contribution to VCC, and we trust we will see him with some regularity during cricket summers in the years to come. We hope he can then sit back and enjoy all the beauty he left behind. That, by the way, will be in the hands of almost the same board, with Richard de Lange swapping the vice chair role for the chair role.
