Ken Borland

Judging by the antics of the Members Council at Saturday’s Cricket South Africa AGM, local cricket fans can thank their lucky stars that there is now a predominantly independent Board that has been put in place to oversee the strategy and vision of the embattled organisation going forward.

In between clowning around in a meeting that has serious consequences for South African cricket and subverting the democratic process by trying to elect people by consensus rather than putting everything to a vote, the Members Council did also manage to object to one of the independent directors named by the Nominations Panel.

Advocate Norman Arendse can be an enormously controversial, divisive figure as he has shown in previous stints on the CSA board, and the Members Council were unanimous in their unhappiness with his appointment. Newly-elected CSA Members Council president Rihan Richards was vague about just why they objected to Arendse, other than to say he was the lead independent director when dismissed CEO Thabang Moroe was appointed and he has made derogatory utterances about CSA in his time off the board.

The Nominations Panel agreed to reconsider Arendse’s appointment, but according to Dr Stavros Nicolaou, the chairman of the Interim Board, they can consider input from stakeholders but can pretty much appoint who they like as long as they meet the eligibility criteria.

The seven independent directors that were confirmed on Saturday are Advocate Steven Budlender, a self-described cricket obsessive; former Proteas batsman and convenor of selectors Andrew Hudson; Simo Lushaba, who has a doctorate in Business Administration and has extensive experience on several boards; governance expert Lawson Naidoo, the executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution; Andisa Ntsubane, a marketing and communications expert whose face is well-known in cricket circles through his work with major sponsors; former MultiChoice CEO Mark Rayner and Ntombi Ravele, a seasoned sports administrator who was involved in boxing, netball and tennis.

Ravele is the only woman on the board because the Members Council could not find it in their hearts or resolve to follow through on their oft-spoken belief in gender equality as they elected Border president Simphiwe Ndzundzu, who has been accused of breaking a woman’s arm with a knobkerrie when he went to a colleague’s house and attacked him and his elderly mother, ahead of Central Gauteng Lions president Anne Vilas.

Ndzundzu, head of a province whose financial situation is almost as disastrous as their on-field performance, and Vilas, in charge of arguably the most successful union in the country, found themselves tied for the fifth non-independent director’s position. Ndzundzu has also accused Vilas of being racist when she raised the allegations of his gender violence.

The four other non-independent directors elected are Daniel Govender (KZN), John Mogodi (Limpopo), Craig Nel (Mpumalanga), Tebogo Siko (Northerns).

Interestingly, neither Richards nor Donovan May of Eastern Province, who was elected vice-president of the Members Council, made themselves available for the Board. While Richards said this was “to ensure clear separation between the Members Council and the Board”, history suggests one will find it is merely an arrangement to ensure seven Members Council representatives share the gravy instead of just five.

There was arguably more relief for Quinton de Kock’s many supporters than for the batsman himself after his superb unbeaten century on the second day of the first Test against the West Indies at St Lucia on Friday, but there is no denying the last year has been very tough for the Proteas wicketkeeper/batsman.

For one of the more instinctive, laid-back talents in South African cricket, a person whose off-field pursuits are largely geared around the great outdoors, bio-bubbles are not easy for De Kock and over and above that he also had to deal with the captaincy of a struggling side. Having taken a break in the latter half of the summer and now relieved of the captaincy, De Kock blossomed on Friday with a brilliantly judged innings of 141 not out that put the Proteas in firm control of the first Test with a massive first-innings lead of 225.

“It didn’t really have anything to do with the captaincy,” De Kock said of his recent struggles, “it’s just the Covid bubbles. We’ve had so many and they just took their toll. It was too much and I just needed a break. Cricket South Africa deemed it a mental break, but I wasn’t tired of cricket, I was tired of the bubbles.

“I went from the IPL into the Pakistan bubble and that was particularly difficult, just going from the ground to one floor of the hotel and our rooms that had no balconies. Previously I wasn’t able to capitalise on my starts in Test cricket and then in the last while I haven’t even been getting starts, so it was nice to get the hundred today,” De Kock explained after his career-best Test innings.

De Kock has always been one of the classiest strokeplayers in the game, but on Friday he showed the appreciation of the game situation and the ability to adapt to it that is a mark of all the top batsmen. After a rapid start that saw him race to 22 off 24 balls, a much better second hour by the West Indian bowlers on a pitch that was still offering plenty of assistance to the quicks, saw De Kock adopt a much more cautious approach and he went to lunch on 44 off 88 deliveries.

The left-hander shared a couple of very useful partnerships with Rassie van der Dussen and Wiaan Mulder, but a fightback by the home side saw the Proteas slip to 233 for eight. But batting with the tail is a skill that De Kock has mastered, despite all the people who want him batting higher up the order, and he showed a cool, razor-sharp mind as he added 79 for the ninth wicket with Anrich Nortje, who scored just seven of those runs.

“It was a nice start to the day and then the bowlers brought it back really well. I understood the situation though and there was a lot in the pitch. We just needed to soak up the pressure for as long as we could and then capitalise. Credit also to the other guys who chipped in. It was a difficult pitch, even though it was not as up-and-down as it was with the new ball in the second innings.

“Even after 75 overs the ball was swinging a lot, but you’ve just go to find a way of dealing with it. There was obviously still a lot in that pitch on the second day, but it was a fair contest because if you worked hard as a batsman you could get runs and the bowlers always had a chance too,” De Kock said.

New Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee might not go so far as to consider Sean Everitt as something akin to an uncle, but the Sharks coach admitted it is going to be tough seeing his former protégé leading the opposition in their decisive Rainbow Cup match in Durban on Saturday.

Coetzee started his professional career with the Sharks, having been schooled at Port Natal High School, and it was Everitt, then in charge of youth rugby at Kings Park, who guided him through the process of being a talented player from an unfashionable rugby school, through age group rugby to being nominated for SA Rugby’s Young Player of the Year award in 2012. Three years later Coetzee made his Springbok debut and he moved to Ulster in 2016, where he established himself as a superstar.

“Marcell will always have a special place in Sharks fans’ hearts and it’s going to be quite sore to see him captain the Bulls after we brought him through from Port Natal. He was magnificent last weekend and he’s been very good for Ulster too. But our guys want to prove themselves against the best and he’s certainly been one of the best in Europe.

“Marcell is motivated every week he puts on a rugby jersey, but he probably sees a bit of a gap in the Springbok set-up with Duane Vermeulen’s injury, and I’m sure there was a lot of disappointment at being left out so I have no doubt he wants to really put his hand up against us,” Everitt said.

Bulls coach Jake White is never shy to milk any sort of psychological advantage he can get and he was not slow to point out the difficulties facing the Sharks as they look to beat the Bulls with a bonus point,  while also denying the visitors any log points, if Everitt is to take his team to Treviso next week for the Rainbow Cup final rather than to Kimberley for their Currie Cup opener.

”The Sharks are a good side, probably the one side that has consistently really pushed us and they play  a solid, certain style of rugby. They will be motivated because they have to beat us comfortably, but in trying to play a bit differently, there’s the risk that they will present us with opportunities if their efforts don’t come off.

“If you try and run everything and you’ve never trained that way, then it could lead to disaster. It’s going to be interesting to see how they adapt to that. We know we just need one point, which we get if we score four tries, so we will also be going flat out for that. It’s like 50-over cricket, you know you can bat through the overs, but you need to score runs as well,” White said.

Cricket South Africa’s long-awaited AGM will take place on Saturday from 10am and the Independent Nominations Panel will be responsible for appointing the eight independent directors to serve on the new 15-person Board, while the Members Council will elect five of their representatives to become non-independent directors.

Dr Stavros Nicolaou, the chaiman of the Interim Board, revealed on Friday at the handover of their report to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa that the nominations panel was headed by the chairman of the Institute of Directors Muhammad Seedat, and the six members included such well-known cricket figures as former first-class cricketer and match referee, attorney Enver Mall; former ICC and CSA president Ray Mali; and former Proteas pace bowler David Terbrugge.

Nicolaou stressed that the Interim Board had no input into the eight nominations that the panel will present on Saturday, except for establishing the parameters around which the members of the Independent Nominations Panel were appointed.

The tenure of the Interim Board will come to an end at the AGM.

“It’s been six months of intense work trying to unscramble many years of problems. Our report contains our learnings and recommendations for the future, and is a template for the next board, hopefully a springboard to more effective executive management. It’s a foundation for the future and that’s most important.

“Our mandate was not just about cricket, it was much bigger than that as Minister Mthethwa highlighted when he first met with us at the end of October. Sport cuts cross every facet of our lives and if cricket fails then it has a much wider impact than just for sport,” Nicolaou said.

Rihan Richards, the acting president of the Members Council that was mostly at loggerheads with the Interim Board and the Minister, thanked both Mthethwa and Nicolaou “for what you have done for cricket”.

“We are entering into a new era for cricket, this will change the face of cricket completely. This is just a report until it is implemented and now we have to take it forward. I don’t anticipate any problems with that at the AGM,” Richards said.