Ken Borland

Interim board chairman Judge Zak Yacoob has pointed to the poor faith Cricket South Africa’s Members Council has shown in agreeing to the process but now withdrawing when the interim board is not toeing the Members Council line.

The Members Council announced on Thursday that they would not recognise the legitimacy of the interim board, creating yet another crisis in South African cricket and once again dragging Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa into the chaos to try and resolve the power struggle.

”We were publicly mandated by the Minister to serve as an  independent interim board to resolve well-aired difficulties faced by CSA over the years, and, over the next three months, to try and ensure an AGM by the end of that time so that an independent, untainted board would take CSA forward with integrity,” Yacoob said in a statement on Thursday after CSA’s bombshell announcement.

“We understood that there was an agreement between the Minister and the Members Council on exactly who was to be appointed and the Members Council undertook to formalise the appointment so that the interim independent board would have the necessary authority and power to clean up cricket in South Africa.

“The Members Council, acting mainly through its Acting President, has adopted the strategy to pretend to co-operate in the process but ensured that every effort was made to obstruct our work. It is for this reason and only for this reason that the interim board has not been appointed. The reasons given have no substance and do not begin to stand scrutiny, Yacoob said.

The retired Constitutional Court Justice went on to provide details of the power struggle currently enveloping South African cricket.

“We dispute that the board should be accountable to theMembers Council in every way.  Each of these entities have their own powers and responsibilities in terms of the relevant enabling provisions. It occurs to us that the realreasonis to prevent us from doing our work independently and outside Members Council control.  We refuse to subject ourselves to anycontrol and sacrifice our independence in the performance of our duties and in the interests of cricket.

“The Members Council should also remember that the executive is accountable to the board … and notthe other way round. We assumed that the Members Council would act honourably and confirm our appointment. We therefore acted as the Board and gave instructions to the executive. The executive balked at this because they were too accustomed to doing what they wanted to do without any accountability. They apparently complained and the Members Council was somehow, morally wrongly, persuaded to take up their cudgels … in support of the executive for no justifiable reason,” Yacoob said.

The presence of former CEO Haroon Lorgat, whose removal in September 2017 began Cricket South Africa’s slide into chaos, is obviously the major stumbling block for the Members Council and the chief reason for them refusing to recognise the interim board they originally agreed to collaborate with to avoid further intervention from Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa.

Acting CSA president Rihan Richards tried to deny their refusal to play ball was down to their objection to an individual, but in his other statements during a press conference on Thursday afternoon he clearly identified Lorgat as the seed of their discontent.

“The chairman of the interim board [Zak Yacoob] said they should be appointed as directors on an unqualified basis or they were no longer willing to take part. We said we were not prepared to accept Haroon Lorgat as a director but then it was not the subject of further discussion. Until this conflict of interest is resolved, which I cannot go into exact details about, we believe the interim board has no legal standing in relation to the company.

“This is not about an individual but about the manner in which our concerns have been addressed, it is almost prescriptive, and we have raised issues around other persons as well. There has been a breakdown in our relationship, the lines of responsibility have been blurred. This is not a U-turn on our behalf, we just want to ensure the process remains credible,” Richards said on Thursday.

Richards said the control of cricket now lies with “the Members Council and the small board [comprising himself, Donovan May, John Mogodi and Zola Thamae] overlooking matters”. But the interim board issued their own statements on Thursday saying they will continue with the mandate entrusted to them by the sports minister.

“This interim board was appointed by the Minister in a way that circumvented the MOI,” Richards claimed. “We are unfairly being called obstructionist but they are not addressing our concerns, we have raised them with the Minister and they have not been addressed to our satisfaction. We have nothing to hide and we still want to engage all stakeholders, but it is our responsibility to ensure the game is administered to the best of ability.

“Sascoc has always been part of the process, but the manner in which they have engaged with CSA is the problem. The Members Council are elected representatives and our actions are not based on self-interest. This is not about the Members Council. I want to be very clear that we do not want conflict with the Minister, we are mindful of his rights but we have taken legal advice from outside lawyers over what is our responsibility to the public and the ICC.”

Cricket South Africa’s Members Council announced on Thursday that they have declined to accept the interim board they themselves were part of compiling, sending them on a collision course with Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa.

The Members Council said in their statement that they will no longer recognise the interim board due to material differences between the two bodies in relation to conflicts of interest, lines of responsibility and accountability, and a breakdown in the relationship between the provincial presidents and the nine would-be directors that were agreed to during the negotiation process between CSA, the Minister of Sport, Sascoc and the South African Cricketers’ Association.

“The Members Council is not prepared to appoint the members of the proposed interim board to be directors of CSA in terms of the MOI. However, the Members Council will continue to work with the Minister, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, and Sascoc on a collaborative basis to address and correct the ills of the past. The basis for the relationship between the parties is clearly prescribed by the law and requires mutual respect by all parties in complying with their obligations,” acting CSA president Rihan Richards said.

By threatening the Minister with legal proceedings, CSA could open themselves up to terrible consequences, including Mthethwa withdrawing their right to represent the country, thereby scuppering the England tour later this month, as well as the upcoming Tests against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia. The financial damage to CSA would be devastating.

Unsurprisingly, CSA’s latest act of defiance has not gone down terribly well with the interim board.

Judge Zak Yacoob, the chairman of the interim board, issued a statement saying the “current situation was untenable” and that they were “determined to continue our work in the public interest and in the best interests of cricket in South Africa”.

“We are thus dismayed to be in receipt of what we can only describe as an obstructionist, legalistic letter from the Members’ Council while we have tried to put structures in place and hold individuals within CSA to account. We are of the view that the conduct of the Members’ Council is an attempt to stymie the work of our Board.

“The Board has been hard at work for the past two weeks since being mandated by the Minister to restore the credibility of CSA. It accepted this mandate publicly and with due care. The failures of corporate governance within Cricket SA are well-known and the cricket-loving public has watched Cricket SA lurch from crisis to crisis,” Yacoob said.

Despite losing three of their desired 23-man squad to Covid, the Sharks are travelling to Kimberley confident that they have the depth to hit peak form against Griquas on Friday night and keep their hopes alive as the Super Rugby Unlocked competition goes into its last two rounds.

Coach Sean Everitt confirmed that one member of the starting XV he wanted to select (probably flank Henco Venter because he was captain last week and is now out of the squad altogether) had tested positive for Covid-19 and two other players who were going to sit on the bench are also isolating because they have had contact with the affected player.

Nevertheless, there is only one debutant in the starting team, former Lions star Anthony Volmink coming in for Manie Libbok at fullback in what is a rotational switch, with the former Blue Bulls player shifting to the bench. The Sharks have also made rotational switches at hooker, lock and wing, while first-choice openside flank James Venter makes a return from injury.

The Sharks, to be led by Currie Cup co-skipper Jeremy Ward on Friday night, are six points behind the log-leading Bulls, and have a game in hand. So if the KwaZulu-Natalians can come away with a bonus point win from Kimberley, then they will be just one point behind heading into the final round.

“The Covid withdrawals haven’t really been a disruption because we were able to move on quite quickly, we had an idea of who we wanted to play and the team has trained well together. You never know initially how many players are going to affected, but fortunately our analysis of training showed there had not been a lot of contact with the guy who tested positive.

“We’ve been taking it one game at a time, but never taking our eyes off the end of the competition, but we haven’t really delivered a top performance yet. We need to get down to work now and hopefully we can come away with a bonus point win which will leave us just one point adrift. The advantage is that we have been rotating guys so everyone has had game time,” Everitt said on Thursday.

While the minnows in Super Rugby often seem to want a disorderly, scrappy game when they come up against the big franchises, Everitt believes Griquas will bring a well-controlled, structured game plan on Friday night.

“Griquas are certainly well-structured, they have clear exit strategies, neat and tidy. Their flyhalf George Whitehead is a seasoned campaigner, he controls the game really well and he was one of the standout players in last year’s Currie Cup. We know coach Scott Mathie from his time with Durban High School, they were free-flowing and played from everywhere, but a different team and situation can change a coach’s philosophy.

“The Stormers showed though against Griquas last weekend that bringing a ball-in-hand approach can create opportunities. But it’s going to be about accuracy and execution for us, we weren’t that good in that respect last weekend, there were a lot of individual errors. And we need to tighten our discipline as well so we don’t give them opportunities. We need to be at the top of our game,” Everitt said.

Teams

Griquas – Masixole Banda, Ederies Arendse, Harlon Klaasen, Johnathan Francke, Eduan Keyter, George Whitehead (captain), Zak Burger, Johan Momsen, Stefan Willemse, Gideon van der Merwe, Cameron Lindsay, Adre’ Smith, Ewald van der Westhuizen, HJ Luus, -Mox Mxoli. Replacements (from): Monde Hadebe, Andrew Beerwinkel, Madot Mabokela, Carl Els, CJ Velleman, Theo Maree, Tinus de Beer, Daniel Kasende, Bandisa Ndlovu, Ewan Coetzee, Ashlon Davids.

Sharks – Anthony Volmink, Yaw Penxe, Jeremy Ward (C), Marius Louw, Madosh Tambwe, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Phendulani Buthelezi, Thembelani Bholi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, John-Hubert Meyer, Kerron van Vuuren, Ox Nche. Replacements: Daniel Jooste, Mzamo Majola, Khwezi Mona, JJ van der Mescht, Dylan Richardson, Cameron Wright, Manie Libbok, Sbu Nkosi.

Kickoff – 19:00