Ken Borland

Depending on whether you believe the suspended chief executive and his legal advisors, Cricket South Africa now have two CEOs in Thabang Moroe and Jacques Faul and it is a chaotic situation that is almost entirely the fault of the president Chris Nenzani and the CSA Board.

It has been more than six months now since CSA’s Social and Ethics and Audit and Risk committees provided the evidence needed to suspend Moroe on December 6. A time period which, according to Moroe’s lawyer Michael Bill, means his suspension has lapsed. Which is why the suspended CEO pulled his brazen stunt this week of rocking up to CSA’s offices in Melrose Estate to ‘report for duty’ and there just happened to be a radio journalist on the scene to take the photo …

Despite the South African Cricketers’ Association warning CSA at the beginning of the week that their failure to make progress on Moroe’s disciplinary hearing would seriously erode the small gains in confidence that have been painstakingly acquired by acting CEO Faul and director of cricket Graeme Smith, the CSA Board were taken by surprise by Moroe’s act of defiance and, despite having practically the whole day to respond, could only issue a statement after midnight in the early hours of Friday morning.

While acknowledging that it might not be easy to pin down a slippery character like Moroe, six months is surely enough time to formulate charges against him given that the financial audit was already picking up irregularities a couple of months into their brief. Plus the state of cricket in December and the relationships Moroe had destroyed with vital stakeholders such as the players association, sponsors and the media should be enough to dismiss a chief executive for obvious incompetence.

The CSA Board have made such a pig’s ear of the entire situation that it is easy to wonder if it has not all been deliberate. Nenzani and Moroe were certainly in cahoots for much of the program of Cricket Capture and it is known that there are still directors who want the former CEO back. Plus the person responsible for handling disciplinary matters, company secretary and head of legal Welsh Gwaza, is a known Moroe ally.

Perhaps commercial manager Clive Eksteen and chief operations manager Naasei Appiah should also get ideas now and return to work after they were suspended by Moroe at the end of October? The then CEO made them, along with Corrie van Zyl, who has already been found guilty and given a final warning, the scapegoats for SACA not receiving the image rights money that was due to the players. But the players’ association say there is proof that it was not Appiah, Eksteen and Van Zyl who were delaying the payments but Moroe himself. Such malfeasance should be sufficient reason to dismiss the CEO.

The CSA Board’s response to Moroe’s ‘return to work’ was to say he is still suspended. Those incompetent directors who have shown themselves to be utterly incapable of coming up with ideas that will benefit the game look set to argue that the former CEO was never told his suspension would only last six months. But Nenzani is on record as having promised the process would be completed within six months.

CSA’s disciplinary processes talk about employees only being suspended for two months, unless there are exceptional circumstances. The Board obviously believe there are exceptional reasons for them to have flouted process, while Moroe and his legal team are within their rights to claim they have been unfairly prejudiced, pointing out that there has been a lack of formal written communication and just ‘conversations’.

There is little doubt the whole fiasco is heading for court and it will be for a judge to decide whether CSA or Moroe are in the right.

It’s going to be yet another financial drain on an organisation that was in dire straits even before the Covid-19 pandemic. All of this overseen by Nenzani, who is still trying to wrangle the constitution into allowing him to stand for yet another term as president. He has changed the constitution three times already and is the longest-serving president South African cricket has ever had to endure. And what good has he done for the game?

For South African cricket-lovers, it has been another week of shame that our beloved sport is in the hands of such delinquents.

There was a deafening silence from the Cricket South Africa Board on Thursday as suspended CEO Thabang Moroe returned to their Melrose Estate offices in a brazen display of defiance.

Moroe arrived at CSA headquarters to report for duty on Thursday morning and was photographed outside the gate by a radio reporter who apparently just happened to be passing by. Moroe’s lawyer, Michael Bill, was quoted by iol sport as saying his suspension, which has been in place from December 6, was only valid for six months and the former CEO was honouring his contractual obligations by showing up for work.

CSA staff are all working remotely, however, and Moroe was denied access to the closed premises in Melrose Estate. The move certainly rattled the CSA Board, who said on Thursday afternoon that they would issue a statement by the evening, but by 9pm on Thursday night, nothing was forthcoming.

The CSA Board was earlier this week slammed by the South African Cricketers’ Association, the players’ union, for their tardiness in making any progress on Moroe’s disciplinary hearing. The Board was accused of lacking the will to take action against Moroe.

CSA president Chris Nenzani has only been heard from once in recent times, when he issued a statement saying the Board had not yet agreed who to back for the ICC chairmanship, a position he is believed to want, despite director of cricket Graeme Smith and acting CEO Jacques Faul publicly backing former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.

With Moroe’s suspension possibly no longer being valid, Faul’s position is certainly under threat. His initial contract expired this month and he confirmed to The Citizen that he is now employed by CSA on a month-to-month basis.

While Faul and Smith have placated the players’ union, sponsors and other stakeholders since taking charge of an organisation that was in freefall both on and off the field in December, Moroe is known to still have his supporters both within the CSA offices and on the Board. Having pulled off a coup to replace former chief executive Haroon Lorgat in 2018, Moroe looks set to outwit the CSA Board, largely due to their own negligence or even complicity.

Bill believes Moroe’s entire suspension was contrary to CSA’s own procedures and labour law, and that there have been no disciplinary hearings, just “conversations”.

Members of the media who had their accreditation revoked by Moroe in December have been interviewed by investigators and insiders at CSA have said a forensic audit of Moroe has brought up irregularities, but nothing further has been done.

Only government approval stands in the way of cricket resuming at the end of the month, with Cricket South Africa optimistic that they will get the go-ahead for a return to action on June 27.

It will only be the Proteas playing for the time being, but all the country’s top cricketers are set to be involved in a made-for-TV match at SuperSport Park in Centurion on the last Saturday of June. With no spectators allowed, a different format featuring three different teams will be trialled and televised live by SuperSport.

“Government have to gazette the Level III regulations and then the Minister of Sport will go over the return-to-play protocols that we have sent, which he must agree with. It’s in the hands of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, but they have been good with us. So hopefully we’ll be playing again at the end of June and we’ll start with the Proteas players, for obvious reasons,” CSA chief executive Jacques Faul confirmed to The Citizen on Wednesday.

“It’s going to be a fundraiser with an exciting new format, sadly without spectators but SuperSport will be broadcasting it live,” Faul added.

Dr Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, said they are confident cricket can safely go ahead under the protocols they have proposed to government.

“First of all it will be an empty stadium, we’re looking at the minimum number of people being there for the event to happen and be broadcast, which is about 200. We will limit the number of team staff, otherwise it will just be the broadcast personnel, officials, players and stadium staff. There will also be thorough cleaning of the stadium beforehand.

“The players will get in three days before and be kept in a sanitized eco-system, at the hotel, when they travel and at the stadium. We will test the players before they get to Centurion and again five days afterwards in order to get rid of any false negatives. On average it takes five days from infection for someone to test positive. In the stadium, everyone will wear masks and doors will be kept open along with other safety measures,” Manjra said.

While Cricket South Africa are all ready to go with a return-to-play, government’s hands are legally tied at the moment because of the court ruling that said their Lockdown regulations were unconstitutional. Which is why fresh laws need to be gazetted and then permissions can be granted by Minister Nathi Mthethwa. The players are obviously raring to go and the June 27 match will be a major milestone on the path to the Proteas hopefully playing international cricket again in August, with India likely to come to South Africa for three T20s and a series against the West Indies also scheduled.

Legendary South African paceman Dale Steyn said on Tuesday that if bowlers were banned from using saliva and sweat on the field of play then it would just be another blow to bowlers in their attempts to maintain the balance of the game as bats just get bigger and better in unrelenting fashion.

As cricket prepares to return to action, the International Cricket Council is devising medical regulations to ensure it is safe to play in this age of Covid-19. Their own cricket committee recommended that saliva be banned from being used on the ball, while the safety of using sweat to shine the ball is not certain.

“It’s just a habit using saliva and I use it more than sweat because as a child that’s what I saw on TV; it’s like deciding what guard to take, I guess I just saw bowlers licking their lips and fingers and then putting it on the ball. But if we’re only allowed to use sweat then it’s just another stupid rule taking away from the bowlers. It would be good to be playing back in the mid-2000s with the juicy mints they had back then!

“The thing with sweat is that you don’t really want it to touch the ball if you’re trying to get reverse swing, the key is to keep the ball dry. But I guess in the greater scheme of things it’s not a big deal whether you use sweat or saliva, except in terms of trying to break habits. If neither are allowed then they really should give the umpire a can of polish that the bowlers can use. Why not? And then I’ll start a business selling the polish!” Steyn told The Citizen on Tuesday.

Apart from safety measures on the field and the players being isolated inside a bio-bubble, there will also be no spectators allowed when cricket resumes. But Steyn said crowd support was not really one of the major ingredients for his own tremendous success.

“I’d probably bowl better with no crowd because I grew up in Phalaborwa and there were no crowds watching me play cricket there! Also when someone like AB de Villiers has just smoked you for 24 runs in an over, you can go down to fine leg and not have the spectators abusing you, you can just drink your water and regather your thoughts.

“But cricket is made for people and entertainment, so it would be sad not to have crowds, but we just have to roll with it. In the IPL, whether you’re playing in front of 70 000 or nobody, you’re still going to have 200 people in the hotel reception. I guess I’ll just wave and give a peace sign from a hundred metres away. It just boils down to personal responsibility, not shaking hands and not getting in others’ personal space,” Steyn said.

Shaun Pollock, another South African fast bowling great, told the Following On cricket podcast recently that if players are isolated and tested before going into a bio-bubble then it should not matter what they shine the ball with.