Ken Borland

Interim board chairman Judge Zak Yacoob has pointed to the poor faith Cricket South Africa’s Members Council has shown in agreeing to the process but now withdrawing when the interim board is not toeing the Members Council line.

The Members Council announced on Thursday that they would not recognise the legitimacy of the interim board, creating yet another crisis in South African cricket and once again dragging Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa into the chaos to try and resolve the power struggle.

”We were publicly mandated by the Minister to serve as an  independent interim board to resolve well-aired difficulties faced by CSA over the years, and, over the next three months, to try and ensure an AGM by the end of that time so that an independent, untainted board would take CSA forward with integrity,” Yacoob said in a statement on Thursday after CSA’s bombshell announcement.

“We understood that there was an agreement between the Minister and the Members Council on exactly who was to be appointed and the Members Council undertook to formalise the appointment so that the interim independent board would have the necessary authority and power to clean up cricket in South Africa.

“The Members Council, acting mainly through its Acting President, has adopted the strategy to pretend to co-operate in the process but ensured that every effort was made to obstruct our work. It is for this reason and only for this reason that the interim board has not been appointed. The reasons given have no substance and do not begin to stand scrutiny, Yacoob said.

The retired Constitutional Court Justice went on to provide details of the power struggle currently enveloping South African cricket.

“We dispute that the board should be accountable to theMembers Council in every way.  Each of these entities have their own powers and responsibilities in terms of the relevant enabling provisions. It occurs to us that the realreasonis to prevent us from doing our work independently and outside Members Council control.  We refuse to subject ourselves to anycontrol and sacrifice our independence in the performance of our duties and in the interests of cricket.

“The Members Council should also remember that the executive is accountable to the board … and notthe other way round. We assumed that the Members Council would act honourably and confirm our appointment. We therefore acted as the Board and gave instructions to the executive. The executive balked at this because they were too accustomed to doing what they wanted to do without any accountability. They apparently complained and the Members Council was somehow, morally wrongly, persuaded to take up their cudgels … in support of the executive for no justifiable reason,” Yacoob said.