[3] Nicholson represented the South African Universities against North Eastern Transvaal as a right-hand off spin bowler and a left-handed batsman.
One such case was the 1984 challenge he successfully brought against the pass laws, which were intended to restrict "idle and undesirable" people to rural confines.
Exhausted, and diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, Nicholson resigned from his position at the LRC and took up a lecturing post at the Durban campus of the University of Natal where he taught evidence, civil procedure and professional practice.
The slower pace of life in academia allowed him to spend time following his other pursuits – music and sport and to recover his health.
He was dismissed as deputy president by Mbeki in June 2005 when his financial advisor Schabir Shaik, was convicted of corruption and fraud.
On 28 December 2007, after various procedural delays the Scorpions (A government anti-corruption and anti-fraud investigation branch) served Zuma an indictment to stand trial in the High Court on various counts of racketeering, money laundering, corruption and fraud.