Ken Borland

Cricket South Africa is in good health and the Board is staying put because of the great job they have been doing; that was the message the organisation conveyed to members of the national squad in a virtual meeting late last week, according to a Protea who spoke to The Citizen on Monday on condition of anonymity.

According to acting CEO Kugandrie Govender, the portrayal of CSA as a sickly, embattled federation is disinformation and she blamed the media for their woes, which include financial worries, a governance crisis that has forced the Minister of Sport to step in, no fixtures confirmed yet for the Proteas this summer and a Board and executive that has been wracked by resignations and dismissals.

Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa has been adamant that the Board should step aside and allow Sascoc to set up an interim board, with particular focus on the Fundudzi Forensic Report and implementing the recommendations of the Nicholson Commission from 2012. He has given CSA until October 27 to offer reasons in writing as to why he should not intervene.

CSA have given no response to Mthethwa’s damning statement from last week, but did try to reassure the players in a virtual meeting to which the players’ union were not invited.

“The Board were in on the call to us, and they said they are going nowhere. We were shocked,” the Protea said. “They were quite adamant about it. People like Temba Bavuma asked probing questions but Kugandrie just talked around it and didn’t answer our questions.”

CSA may have made a R50 million profit before taxation for the financial year ended April 30, according to their 2019/20 Annual Integrated Report, but their message to the players that they are in a stable financial position is based on several assumptions.

England may still arrive in South Africa in mid-November for six limited-overs matches which would bring in around R70 million for CSA, but there is no indication yet that government has approved that tour or that the scheduled tours by Sri Lanka and to Pakistan over December/January will happen. Australia are also meant to tour for a Test series at the end of the summer.

But the longer the current Board hangs on to power, and the governance scandals rumble on and on, the more damage is done to CSA’s credibilty and that has already had an effect on the bottom line with broadcasters, sponsors and supporters jumping ship.

It would seem CSA have relied on terrible legal advice from Bowmans – whose ties with CSA company secretary Welsh Gwaza, a former employee, are a concern – to bunker down and try and keep the forensic report they themselves commissioned as secret as possible.

While CSA’s directors may see themselves as corporate bigwigs not compelled to operate transparently, Mthethwa’s intervention is based strongly on CSA being a public entity, custodians of a sport that belongs to the public, and he can rely on broad support for his strong stance.

The fact that the Springboks will be missing the defence of their Rugby Championship title – and any international rugby at all this year – is obviously terrible but it is a courageous and correct decision by SA Rugby.

The fact that, for once, the players were not thrown under the bus, sacrificed on the altar of financial gain, speaks volumes for the integrity and willingness to do the right thing for the game of the people who made that extremely tough decision.

Yes, not playing in the Rugby Championship is going to mean South African rugby, already bleeding due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is going to lose out on millions of rand. Fortunately some of the financial blow will be mitigated by some clever work in negotiation that has a clause written into the Sanzaar contract that if a country is unable to play due to circumstances beyond their control, then they still get a share of the revenue.

It is precisely that sort of integrity and willingness to act for the greater good of the game that is entirely missing from the Cricket South Africa Board.

What can we say about a person’s integrity and service to cricket when the forensic report they personally played a role in instituting implicates them in wrongdoing; and when both Sascoc, the controlling body for all high-performance sport in this country, and the Minister of Sport call for them to stand aside to allow for a proper investigation; but they stubbornly refuse to go, even at the risk of the ICC suspending the Proteas from international action?

As someone who has covered top-level cricket and rugby in this country for more than 25 years, I cannot escape the irony of where SA Rugby stands at the moment in terms of public credibility in comparison to Cricket South Africa.

CSA used to be leading the way in terms of transformation and good governance, and the Proteas, despite their miserable World Cup record, were consistently amongst the top three in global cricket. Rugby, slow to transform and with the tail (all the minor provinces) wagging the dog in terms of decision-making, delivered World Cups in 1995 and 2007, but there were many dark times on and off the field in between and after.

One of rugby’s lowest moments came when they tried to take on government, even forcing Nelson Mandela to testify in court. They took a long time to recover from that disgrace.

But with Rassie Erasmus and Jurie Roux leading the way, a third World Cup title was won last year with a marvellously transformed team that was loved by the public at large.

Rugby has learnt the lesson that you should never pick a fight with the sports minister: you might win a battle, but you will definitely ultimately lose the war. The arrogant CSA Board, judging by the awful letter acting president Beresford Williams sent to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa, clearly still need to learn this lesson.

The ICC may be the global governing body of the sport, but they are generally reluctant to get involved in the affairs of their individual members. In fact, they will only step in if a member complains to the ICC itself, which is why there have been numerous thoroughly dysfunctional administrations about which nothing has been done.

Haroon Lorgat, the former chief executive of both the ICC and CSA, has also drawn the important distinction between government interference and intervention. By forewarning CSA and the ICC – he gave them a very generous two weeks grace – Mthethwa has signalled that his stepping in is an intervention rather than interference. There are very few people other than the CSA Board who will not consider it a welcome intervention, so long and revolting this imbroglio has become.

Mthethwa issued his statement, which is one of the most dramatic in South African cricket history, on Wednesday. By Friday afternoon we were still waiting for any response from CSA to what amounts to a massive motion of no confidence in the organisation.

Perhaps they don’t know what to do, given the rank incompetence of so many of their directors. Well here’s a suggestion for the obstinate CSA Board: Do the right thing.

In my mind that involves anyone implicated in the Fundudzi Forensic Report immediately standing down, so Sascoc can do a thorough investigation of CSA’s affairs without these self-serving, power-hungry administrators  continually being in the picture.

That’s the sort of compromise that might just get Mthethwa off cricket’s back and stop him from doing something that could really lead to catastrophe for the sport.

For the sake of cricket, the game you have all professed to love so much, please just stand aside.

The South African Cricketers’ Association – the players’ union – on Wednesday entreated the Cricket South Africa Board to stand down following sports minister Nathi Mthethwa’s threat to intervene in the affairs of the embattled federation due to the impasse between government and CSA.

SACA chief executive Andrew Breetzke said in a statement that the only way to end the impasse between CSA and Sascoc and the sports minister was for the Board to resign and be replaced by an interim board. He said the alternative was the International Cricket Council suspending South Africa’s membership, causing enormous disappointment and hardship for the players and the sport itself.

“SACA believes that an interim board of directors must be established to stabilise the organisation. This interim board should include a SACA player’s representative as well as a representative from the remaining stakeholders in the game (sponsors and broadcasters). Furthermore, the interim board should appoint an experienced administrator to assist in the operational work that is required at CSA, ensuring a link between the interim board and operational staff.
“Cricket is in an existential crisis, and the intervention of government will result in the ICC reviewing CSA’s position as an ICC Member, and will furthermore jeopardise the England tour scheduled for next month. Players will suffer, development will suffer and the future of the game will be prejudiced. However, as has been recognised by Department of Sports, Arts & Culture and Sascoc, the current board has no credibility to resolve the crises, and it is clear that the current impasse between government and CSA will not be resolved until such time as the board stands down. We therefore implore the CSA Board to stand down and thereby take a decision that will be in the best interests of cricket,” Breetzke said.

SACA’s position is that an interim board has to be in place first, because the current directors are unable to self-correct. The interim board will then drive the restructuring of the board to ensure it is fully compliant with the recommendations of the Nicholson Commission, which came out eight-and-a-half years ago.

“As we have stated previously, CSA is not able to self-correct, and the intervention of government is further evidence of this. The current governance structure of CSA must be reviewed, and this has been acknowledged by CSA. The interim board must facilitate the implementation of the Nicholson recommendations through amendments to the Memorandum of Incorporation, as this will allow for an effective Board of Directors to ultimately take over the responsibility of the governance of the game.

“The Fundudzi Forensic Report has identified various failures in governance, failures that have consistently been highlighted by SACA, and this is the opportunity to remedy these for the sake of the game and ensure that experienced personnel are recruited into key executive positions,” Omphile Ramela, the SACA president, said.

Like a top-class snooker player or a chess grandmaster, sports minister Nathi Mthethwa has now backed the Cricket South Africa Board into a corner from which they can only extricate themselves by acceding to his wishes.

That’s the view of former International Cricket Council and Cricket South Africa CEO Haroon Lorgat following Minister Mthethwa’s announcement on Wednesday that CSA had until October 27 to give him written reasons why he should not intervene in their affairs following the continued refusal of their Board to step down.

Mthethwa has also notified the ICC of his intention to intervene, raising the possibility of CSA’s membership being suspended, which would mean the Proteas being banned from international action and domestic cricket no longer being recognised.

“It’s a terrible situation and the Board now has so much egg on their faces that they have banded together to try and protect their own interests. But I think CSA ae now snookered, they have checkmated themselves. The Minister and Sascoc have covered their bases and I suspect their legal advisors told them to be patient and follow process.

“I have been impressed by the patience and good process followed by the Minister and I think he has compared notes with Sascoc and given CSA a fair chance. CSA are members of Sascoc and Sascoc has oversight responsibility, but the arrogant Board have just refused to budge. So the Minister’s announcement is a positive step and hopefully it’s now checkmate,” Lorgat told The Citizen on Wednesday.

Lorgat was also highly critical of the CSA Board’s attempt to take on Mthethwa, as revealed by the letters between the two parties published by The Citizen on Wednesday morning [https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/sa-cricket-sport/2370372/more-woes-for-crickets-embattled-williams-as-minister-mthethwa-cracks-the-whip/].

“I have never seen this level of digging in heels before in South African sport. You may win one battle against the Minister of Sport but you are never going to win the war. Show me one stakeholder other than the 12 in the CSA Boardroom who support CSA’s stance? There’s no doubt the Minister has popular support for his actions,” Lorgat said.

The seasoned administrator, who this week was appointed director of strategy and development for the Abu Dhabi T10 League, said it was not guaranteed, however, that the ICC were going to automatically suspend CSA if Mthethwa does formally intervene in their affairs.

“In terms of the ICC, there’s a difference between interference and intervention. If there’s a family and there’s a tiff here and there, that’s normal in a marriage and the sports minister stepping in would be tantamount to interference. But if there’s a family and the father is going off the rails, if the kids are getting hurt or someone’s going to get murdered, then good people are going to intervene.

“I think the ICC may see this as a necessary intervention. A previous example was India when their Supreme Court ran a committee of administrators for three years in order to reform the BCCI and get it away from the likes of the Srinivasans. They were not suspended because a proper process was followed and cricket supporters and stakeholders are entitled to proper administration,” Lorgat explained.

What will happen if the ICC do decide to suspend Cricket South Africa?

• Firstly, they will write to the Minister of Sport telling him not to intervene or CSA will be suspended;
• If the Minister continues with his intervention, the ICC will then suspend CSA and stop all funding to them, as well as halt all recognised cricket, including the Proteas and domestic teams. Any cricket in South Africa will be deemed unsanctioned cricket, plunging the country back into isolation and expunging any games played during this period from the record books;
• England’s proposed white-ball tour in November/December will be cancelled, meaning CSA will lose around R70 million, a much-needed boost for their embattled finances;
• Zimbabwe were suspended by the ICC in mid-2019 due to political interference, meaning they missed qualifying for the World T20. The suspension was lifted three months later when Zimbabwe’s sport minister reinstated the ZC Board.
• A three-month suspension would decimate the South African season, putting paid to proposed series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and causing catastrophic damage to CSA’s already parlous financial situation.