Ken Borland

The board of Cricket South Africa on Wednesday announced that non-independent, “amateur” directors would continue to form the majority in their new structure, complying with the wishes of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee.

A special general meeting agreed at O.R. Tambo International Airport on Wednesday that the restructured board would comprise five independent directors and seven non-independent directors for a period of 18 months following the AGM on February 2, after which the board would be expanded to include seven independent directors and nine non-independent representatives from each of the national provinces.

“Initially, the seven non-independent directors will come from the ranks of the presidents of the affiliates, before following the due geo-political regions. Of course we are not entirely happy with this, our goal was to have a 5-5 split of directors, but as a member of Sascoc we have to fulfil their criteria and they are very clear about that,” acting president Willie Basson said after the meeting.

“Rugby and cricket will face huge practical problems implementing this, but the new board will continue to engage with Sascoc because we don’t want to set up conflict with them. But we will also try to ensure the board is not too unwieldy.”

Basson said even though non-independent administrators would be in the majority, contrary to the recommendations of the Nicholson Inquiry, the views and skills of independent voices would still be heard on the board.

“We are the only sports body in the country that has as significant a number of independent directors and that will definitely impact the way the board operates in the future. The independent directors will bring greater objectivity and their skills base to the board,” Basson said.

As proposed in the King III report on corporate governance, a lead independent director will be elected to act as a guide for the chairperson of the board. The president of CSA will act as the chairperson of the board.

“The president will have ultimate authority, without question, as recommended by King III and Sascoc is adamant about that as well. The independent, lead director is appointed in case there is conflict between the president and the board and it is a good governance principle,” Basson said.

Basson confirmed that he will continue to act as acting president until the AGM, despite suggestions the board may ask him to step down in the wake of allegations he was involved in Apartheid-era chemical warfare programs.

“I will carry on until the AGM having explained myself for the umpteenth time to the board and they accepted my explanation. It’s very simple: I had been involved for two years in the 1980s with the defensive side of chemical research and since just before 1994 in exactly the same area for the present government structures,” Basson said.

The SABC announced on Wednesday that they would only be providing live coverage of the limited-overs and T20 internationals between South Africa and New Zealand, and Cricket South Africa (CSA) are set to lose R20 million as a result.

The only coverage SABC are willing to provide of the two Tests against the Black Caps will be two highlights packages per day and, as a result,  CSA will only receive R11 million – R3 million from the SABC and R8 million from advertising time that has already been bought by the sponsors – for the television rights, when their actual value is R30 million.

“We are disappointed that the Tests will receive limited coverage and, although we are committed to the free-to-air broadcaster as part of our development mandate, we took a substantial cut in our broadcast rights fee to ensure we can take cricket to the South African public,” acting CSA chief executive Jacques Faul said in a statement released on Wednesday.

But behind the scenes, the cricket governing body is seething over the SABC’s unwillingness to fulfil their Icasa-stipulated mandate of providing live coverage of sporting events that are in the national interest. South Africa have been the number one ranked team in Test cricket since August, but the matches against New Zealand are their first on home soil since winning the pre-eminent ranking.

CSA sources told Business Day that Faul is so upset over the deal that he had to be talked out of considering whether to step down as CEO.

“The decision to broadcast these matches is a clear indication that we take our mandate seriously and we are cognisant that the public of South Africa deserve to see their cricket team – which is rated number one in the world in Test cricket and also highly in the other formats of the game.

“The SABC will continue to serve the public of South Africa and be true to their mandate of educating, informing and entertaining them,” SABC spokesman Sizwe Nzimande said.

CSA are now determined to handle their television rights differently next summer, with SuperSport likely to be offered exclusive rights and paying considerably more for them.

As one high-ranking CSA official said: “We’ve been falling over backwards to try and get cricket on free-to-air television because we know how vital that is to developing the game, especially amongst the disadvantaged communities. But now we’ve sold the rights to SABC at nearly one-third of their value. Where do they think most of our money to run our development programmes  comes from? It’s from selling the television rights and now we’ve taken a big knock in that department.”

Negotiations with the SABC had been ongoing for the last two months through world leading television rights company IMG, while CSA had also tried to get Sascoc and the sports ministry to intervene on their behalf as Faul acknowledges the importance of cricket being on the majority of TVs in the country.

“To grow our game, we need cricket on free-to-air. We see it as an obligation to all South Africans that they can see their number one team in action,” he said earlier this week.

http://www.bdlive.co.za/sport/cricket/2012/12/20/cricket-south-africa-seethes-over-sabc-test-rights-snub

The SABC looks set to deny millions of South Africans live coverage of international cricket this summer despite Cricket South Africa (CSA) offering them broadcast rights at massively discounted rates.

By late yesterday, the SABC had still not accepted CSA’s latest proposal which involved them broadcasting South Africa’s home internationals this summer for a minimal fee, but with the state broadcaster paying over the money companies have already committed to be broadcast sponsors.

“It would be an absolute disaster if the South African cricket-loving public don’t get to see the number one Test team in the world in action. To grow the game, we need it on free-to-air television. We see it as an obligation to take cricket to all South Africans. It will be very, very sad if cricket is not on SABC,” CSA acting chief executive Jacques Faul told Business Day on Monday.

CSA have been in negotiation with the SABC for two months, through IMG, the global leaders in televised sports productions, but so far the broadcaster has just offered to screen highlights.

While CSA are desperate to ensure free-to-air broadcasts, there is no commercial benefit for them to do so. In fact, it costs them significant amounts of money as SuperSport would pay considerably more than they currently do if they had exclusive rights.

In previous years, the SABC have signed a broadcast agreement as late as on the morning of the first international match, but CSA insiders now believe even this won’t happen. This would be in contravention of the SABC’s mandate as stipulated by Icasa, the South African communications regulator, which compels the national broadcaster to show sporting events that are in the national interest.

The amount of money CSA’s regular sponsors have already paid for advertising time on the SABC would cover about half the rights fee the cricket governing body is seeking from the broadcaster. CSA would then supplement this amount by selling further advertising themselves. But even this proposal has so far failed to win over the SABC.

The home international season begins on Friday in Durban with the first of three T20 internationals against New Zealand.

South Africa limited-overs captain AB de Villiers on Wednesday expressed his support for a new-look T20 side to be chosen for the series against New Zealand later this month.

The Proteas squad for the three T20 internationals between December 21 and 26 will be announced in Cape Town on Thursday and De Villiers expects fresh faces after South Africa’s disappointing ICC World T20 exit before the semi-final stage.

“You’ve got to keep the T20 team fresh and exciting and it’s a great vehicle to get youngsters through into international cricket. We want to try fresh faces and there will definitely be a few new names because there are youngsters who have really performed at domestic level and we need to give them a chance,” De Villiers said at the Wanderers on Wednesday, where he attended the announcement of KFC as the title sponsors for both the New Zealand and Pakistan T20 series.

“These new players will bring different talents and skills, which is exciting.”

The general trend in international cricket has been for countries to use T20 specialists rather than relying on their Test players and De Villiers said it was clear South Africa would have to go further down that route.

“The Test players have played a big part in the T20 side, but that might change in future and you’ll probably see a team with a whole different look,” De Villiers said.

De Villiers, fresh off his thrilling hundred in the series-clinching Perth Test victory over Australia, returned to limited-overs action over the weekend with a century for the Titans, albeit in a losing cause against the Cape Cobras in their Momentum One-Day Cup eliminator.

“That was one of my better hundreds because it was against a really good attack. You can tell the standard of domestic cricket is very good from that match and I like to play domestic cricket when it’s like international cricket,” De Villiers said.

New Zealand have suffered two major blows with the loss of injured spinner Dan Vettori and the unavailability of former captain Ross Taylor, and De Villiers conceded South Africa should beat the Black Caps if they play to their full potential.

“New Zealand are always a dangerous side, they beat us in the World Cup and they’re really tough to beat when they get things right. But we know we’re the favourites and if we play good cricket, then we should win. We have a mental advantage over them because we beat them over there at the beginning of the year.

“They have had a lot of changes to their Test side, which is still trying to find its feet, but they’re definitely more dangerous in T20. They’re a very busy team, very good in the field,” De Villiers said.

But even if fresh faces such as Aaron Phangiso, Hardus Viljoen, Chris Morris, Roelof van der Merwe, Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Andrew Birch are included, South Africa’s T20 strategies are not going to undergo any dramatic change.

“We may have new players, but we’ll use the same strategy and follow the same game-plan,” De Villiers said.

Which means De Villiers will definitely retain the wicketkeeper’s gloves.

“Yes I’m glad I’m a wicketkeeper now, after 50 overs in the field against the Cobras I’m a bit stiff!” he joked.

Probable squad – Faf du Plessis, Richard Levi, AB de Villiers, Farhaan Behardien, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Justin Ontong, Robin Peterson, Roelof van der Merwe, Chris Morris, Hardus Viljoen, Aaron Phangiso, Dale Steyn or Morne Morkel, Andrew Birch, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.