Ken Borland

Perhaps we should blame it on a night on the tiles or Wacky Wednesday, but reports on Thursday that a majority of the Cricket South Africa interim board were opposed to the decision to suspend company secretary Welsh Gwaza defied belief.

Are we supposed to believe that the independent chairman, Justice Zak Yacoob, a former judge of the Constitutional Court, over-rode a democratic vote of the board and went with a minority view?

We know that previous CSA boards have lied about decisions being unanimous when they were not. Or maybe they just struggled with the meaning of the word ‘unanimous’. But this interim board, made up of three directors serving the vested interests of the Members Council, three from the vested interests of the South African Cricketers Association (the players’ union) and Sascoc, and three independents works on majority vote.

It is the only way they can balance all those vested interests and Yacoob undoubtedly knows this is the only way they will be able to fulfil their mandate from the sports minister. Or is Yacoob suddenly not the upstanding bastion of he law he has always been before?

And the interim board have admitted that there were differences of opinion, but it is believed the division only involves a couple of members.

Anyone who has read the Fundudzi Forensic Report can see there is clearly a prima facie case against Gwaza that needs answering; he misled the Board on several occasions. And there is also skulduggery that went on in his office that is not in the Fundudzi Report but of which members of the interim board are well aware.

And then also on Thursday, the acting CEO, Kugandrie Govender, a great ally of Gwaza’s on the CSA Exco, joined him in the dog box because Clive Eksteen, the former head of sales and sponsor relations, had his dismissal in June deemed unlawful by the CCMA.

Apart from yet more legal fees – Gwaza has been directing millions of Rands the way of Bowmans Gilfillan, his former employers, in recent months – CSA are now facing a hefty damages bill. Govender was Eksteen’s line manager and gave evidence against him at the CCMA. Evidence which Eksteen contested and now that he has won, the spotlight will fall on Govender and her evidence.

Former chief financial officer Naasei Appiah and fired CEO Thabang Moroe are also contesting their dismissals but judging by the contents of the Fundudzi Report, the chances of them winning are about as good as the chances of Yacoob having gone rogue and becoming a dictator who wants to take control of cricket.

In the midst of all the legal wrangles the interim board has to sort out, the huge issue of transformation in the national team has once again reared its ferocious head. The previous board approved the increased quotas demanded by the likes of Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, the independent director who arrived out of the blue, became a powerful figure extremely quickly and has now thankfully disappeared almost as rapidly.

The interim board has now suspended those targets, meaning the Proteas will continue, in the meantime, to play under the same targets, to be averaged out over a season, as last summer.

The problem with the revised targets is that they were formulated without any input from the people on the ground – the coaches and selectors who have to implement them and the players who have to live and work under them. The Cricket Capturers, much like the State Capturers, have done well to hitch themselves to the transformation train, but the absence of any meaningful plan to actually change the game from the grassroots up means it is all just a cynical exercise in ticking the box at Proteas level and gaining the approval of the politicians.

The issue of quotas is a highly complex one and the vital thing is for those who are most affected by them – the players, coaches and selectors – to have the input they deserve.

The administrators in their ivory towers who proposed the increased national team quota of seven Blacks per XI, including three Black Africans, might be surprised by what they hear.

As one Black African Protea said to me this week: “I’m no house n****, but where are they going to find the players to reach those targets?!”

The first ODI between South Africa and England scheduled to be played at Newlands from 1pm on Friday has been postponed due to a positive Covid-19 test and will now be held at Boland Park’s scenic surrounds on Sunday.

Cricket South Africa confirmed on Friday, only an hour before the match was scheduled to start, that a member of the Proteas team had tested positive for Covid-19 in the final round of testing which was done on Thursday. While that player obviously goes straight into isolation, everyone else who has been in close contact with him now also has to quarantine or be re-tested.

The bottom line is that the entire series, which was meant to end on Wednesday, is now in doubt because South Africa only have a squad of 18 players in the bubble. The potential loss of revenue from the three ODIs being cancelled is something the professional game in this country can ill afford.

According to the CSA statement, England and Wales Cricket Board CEO Tom Harrison has agreed to the first ODI being postponed rather than cancelled. Sunday’s second game in Paarl will now become the opening 50-ovr fixture, with the Newlands match now being played on Monday and Cape Town also hosting the third match on Wednesday.

Sunday’s fixture is a day game while the last two matches are day/nighters.

Both teams have been tenants of the luxury Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town, in a strictly-controlled bio-bubble, but the Proteas had two players – believed to be David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo – test positive for Covid before the T20 series between November 27 and December 1.

The former head of sales and sponsor relations, Clive Eksteen, has won his CCMA hearing against Cricket South Africa, who had their dismissal of the former Proteas spinner hit out of the park by the presiding officer.

Eksteen was suspended by CSA on October 29, 2019, along with head of cricket pipelines Corrie van Zyl and chief financial officer Naasei Appiah, and then fired in June for “transgressions of a serious nature”. Former CEO Thabang Moroe had initiated the suspension over the non-payment of Mzansi Super League image rights fees to the South African Cricketers’ Association.

But as the Fundudzi Forensic Report made clear, Moroe and Appiah were actually the ones responsible for the delay in payment and SACA were amongst the witnesses who exonerated Eksteen and Van Zyl. Nevertheless, CSA continued with the disciplinary hearing, with Eksteen’s then line manager Kugandrie Govender, who was then the chief commercial officer but is now the acting CEO, apparently driving the process.

Additional charges were laid against Eksteen that he sold a sponsorship deal to a multinational company for a lower amount than had been approved by the CSA Exco.

“No evidence was presented of Exco having mandated a final amount for the sponsorship; and my superior [Govender] in her evidence failed to mention that she had read a message from me to her, prior to the Exco meeting, in which I had told her of the current offer on the table from the sponsor,” Eksteen said in a statement he released after his dismissal.

Eksteen could not be reached for comment on Thursday, but other high-ranking officials have confirmed the CCMA has ruled in his favour.

Eksteen, who turned 54 on the day he received the good news, has been working in the media industry since his departure from CSA and is highly unlikely to accept his job back. It means CSA are now liable for a large damages claim, given that Eksteen’s dismissal has been found to be unfair and he suffered huge reputational damage as a result.

It is another blow to the cash-strapped, scandal-ridden organisation’s exco. Company secretary Welsh Gwaza was suspended by the interim board this week due to his misgovernance as revealed by the Fundudzi Report, and Govender could now also be in their sights given the costly botching of Eksteen’s disciplinary case.

Rudi Second’s growth as one of the best batsmen in South African domestic cricket was shown on Thursday as he scored a magnificent 171 that at one point had the Warriors entertaining thoughts of chasing down a record target of 513 against the Imperial Lions in Port Elizabeth.

The Warriors began the final day of their 4-Day Domestic Series match on 219 for five and Second, with the help of Lesiba Ngoepe (51) and Tshepo Ntuli (40*) took them past the 400 mark before Malusi Siboto bowled a superb delivery to nip back and beat him, hitting the top of off stump.

With Second out of the way, the Lions were able to bowl out the Warriors for 436 and claim victory by 76 runs.

Second’s 171 off 246 balls may not have resulted in a miracle win, but it was nevertheless a memorable effort against the defending champions, studded with 15 fours and three sixes.

Sisanda Magala and Delano Potgieter took three wickets apiece for the Lions, while Siboto claimed two for 43.

Opener Pieter Malan’s properties of work ethic, sound judgement and perseverance saw him bat the Cape Cobras to the safety of a draw in their match against the Titans at SuperSport Park.

The Cobras began the final day on 33 without loss, a lead of just four runs, but Malan, who made his Proteas debut at the beginning of the year, batted through to lunch as he and young Jonathan Bird (47) put on 100 for the first wicket.

Malan’s three-and-a-half hour innings of 57 was enough to quell the Titans’ hopes, although the home side did throw everything at the Cobras in a fiery burst after lunch.

Dayyaan Galiem set the tone with an excellent spell that went unrewarded, before Thando Ntini produced an impressive stint to remove Aviwe Mgijima (7) and Calvin Savage (3). With spinner Neil Brand having Zubayr Hamza caught behind for 26, the Cobras had some anxious moments as they slipped to 180 for five.

But Tony de Zorzi, who dug in for two hours to score 31 not out, and Brendon Louw (11*) weathered the storm by batting through to tea, taken on 207 for five, after which the teams shook hands on the draw.