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.

Not changing a winning side used to be a mantra in rugby, but seasoned Bulls coach Jake White knows that a constant reliance on certain players could cause problems further down the line, which is why he has made eight changes to the team that registered an incredible win, with 14 men, last weekend over Western Province for their Currie Cup match against the Free State Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Regulars such as wing Travis Ismaiel, scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl, lock Ruan Nortje and tighthead Trevor Nyakane are all being rested, while White said captain Duane Vermeulen will hopefully be given time off over the Christmas period. White made a point of saying at Thursday’s team announcement though that he is wary of the Cheetahs, and Van Zyl, Nortje and Nyakane are all on the bench should the Bulls get into trouble.

But with the impressive David Kriel moving to wing to replace Ismaiel, there is the excitement of Kurt-Lee Arendse playing fullback, Springbok Embrose Papier gets a start at No.9 in the sort of high-tempo game he enjoys, the lock pairing of Walt Steenkamp and Sintu Manjezi both began the year in the Free State, and props Marcel van der Merwe and Gerhard Steenekamp, replacing the suspended Jacques van Rooyen, both deserve a start.

“It’s a bit of both wanting to rest guys and see how some new combinations go,” White said on Thursday. “I can’t keep playing the same guys, we’re not going to get away with that. I know things are working at the moment, but if we get to the playoffs and we haven’t tried any other combinations then we could be in trouble. What happens if someone gets Covid?

“There’s also a much bigger picture and we’re highly unlikely to get away with the same 23-man squad in Europe next year. So we have to get the guys game-ready and one of these new faces could play in a Currie Cup final, you never know. So I’d like to see these different combinations we’re trying and the guys are incredibly positive about the changes,” White said.

White has kept faith with the brilliant surprise packet centre pairing of Cornal Hendricks and Stedman Gans, and seems to have become a real cheerleader for the Sevens stars who have switched to XVs. He was particularly excited about playing Arendse at fullback.

“Like all the Sevens players, Kurt-Lee has incredible all-round skills and work-ethic. Not many fullbacks are putting their hands up in South African rugby and I would like to see him with more space and time. He can kick with both feet so he won’t get cornered and he’s done phenomenal things in training. He has unbelievable feet and if we can unearth another fullback like Gio Aplon, his idol, and Cheslin Kolbe, then it can only be good for the union,” White said.

With the security of knowing he has his office at Loftus Versfeld through to 2023, White knows the importance of blooding the next generation of players to ensure continued success for the Bulls.

“I’m quite fortunate that I have a long-term deal and part of my job is to get things in place for the next couple of seasons. Guys like Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Marnus Potgieter are on the bench this weekend and I have said that I will bring them through the system. I will keep my word to them and they need to get game time,” White said.

Bulls: Kurt-Lee Arendse, David Kriel, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Morné Steyn, Embrose Papier, Duane Vermeulen (c), Arno Botha, Marco van Staden, Walt Steenkamp, Sintu Manjezi, Marcel van der Merwe, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements – Corniel Els, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Trevor Nyakane, Ruan Nortje, Nizaam Carr, Ivan van Zyl, Chris Smith, Marnus Potgieter.