It is often said, "cometh the hour; cometh the man". Ruan de Swardt was, without a doubt last year the "man" for the Assupol TuksCricket team. 

The team won the Varsity Tournament as well as the International Red Bull Campus Tournament. It was "Patches" as he is known amongst his Assupol Tuks teammates who stepped up when it mattered. Showing that versatility is what win matches. 

Ruan de Swardt along with his captain, Neil Brand, kept a cool head to steer Assupol Tuks to an eight-wicket victory in the Varsity-final against UJ. Brand scored an unbeaten 19 runs from 16 balls with De Swardt contributing with an unbeaten 17 runs from 12 balls. He scored the winning runs by hitting a four. 

Assupol Tuks faced off against Karatsji University (Pakistan) in the Red Bull Campus Tournament-final played in Dubai. Again De Swardt was impressive. During the 16th over, he took three wickets with four balls to end with figures of 5/12. His heroics helped Assupol Tuks to win by five wickets. 

De Swardt ended up being the tournament's best bowler taking ten wickets in total.

It is this never say die attitude at crunch moments that led to him getting the Assupol TuksCricket player of the year award.

De Swardt describes himself as a batsman who values his wicket. As a bowler, he is at his happiest if he gets to complicate things for the batsmen, making them worry as to how they need to go about defending their wickets.

"Once I step onto the field, there is the only thing that matters. That is to perform to the best of my ability for the team," explained De Swardt who will be playing for the Dolphins when normality eventually returns to South African sport. 

Jiveshan Pillay who captained Assupol Tuks to victory in Dubai is Assupol Tuks's batsman of the year. 

Pillay was brilliant for the duration of the Red Bull Tournament scoring 245 runs in five games. He had the distinction of being the only batsman to score a century. It contributed to him being the best batsman of the tournament. 

The Assupol Tuks captain describes him as being the forever student of cricket.

"I often find myself thinking about the game. When we are playing, I won't hesitate to ask a player why he has done what he has done. That is how you learn. Cricket is not something you study, and then you know it all."

Sean Gilson who ended up being the leading wicket-taker during the Varsity Tournament is the Assupol Tuks bowler of the year. In eight games he took 16 wickets at an average of 9.1.

Other players to receive awards were Ambrin Snyders (man of the year), Aron Visser (most improved player), Jiveshen Pillay (players player), Jafta Gandi (women's player of the year).