Ken Borland

Cricket South Africa was plunged into monumental chaos on Monday as acting chief executive Jacques Faul resigned with immediate effect, hot on the heels of long-term president Chris Nenzani standing down.

The departure of Nenzani, who has been the longest-ever serving president, having been elected for the first time in 2013 and extending his term twice through constitutional amendments, was confirmed by CSA in a statement released on Monday morning.

But, according to CSA sources, Faul also tendered his immediate resignation on Monday. He had announced at the end of last month that he would step down from his role as acting CEO on September 15, his initial appointment from December 2019 to June having been extended on a month-to-month basis.

It is believed the CSA Board has stripped Faul of his powers, which is why he has decided to leave the embattled organisation immediately.

Faul was thrust into the role of acting CEO after Thabang Moroe was suspended nine months ago, triggering a forensic audit and a disciplinary process which to this day has still not been finalised, even though the Board have been sitting with the report for weeks.

Last December, CSA were facing deficits of close to a billion rand, fighting the players’ association in court, had alienated major sponsors and cancelled the accreditation of five journalists who had been critical of Moroe and the organisation. And the Proteas were seemingly in freefall just before the arrival of the England team.

Since then, Faul has ensured there have been no retrenchments through the Covid-19 pandemic and mended relationships with the players’ association, sponsors and media. The appointment of Graeme Smith as Director of Cricket and then Mark Boucher as Proteas head coach saw the team rally somewhat, beating a powerful Australian side 3-0 in an ODI series at the end of the summer.

It is believed company secretary Welsh Gwaza, a strong supporter of Moroe, will now be the acting CEO.

Gwaza is emerging as a powerful new figure within the organisation and he is also the current acting president until the CSA Members Council elect a temporary replacement for Nenzani, who stepped down just three weeks before the AGM to elect a new president on September 5.

CSA gave no reasons for Nenzani’s resignation, but an insider told The Citizen that they were told Nenzani had resigned “because of the cloud over CSA, too much is pointing back to the organisation and he wants to help clear the path for a new leader”.

Another insider pointed to the increasing influence of independent director and chairperson of the Transformation Committee, Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, who “is now running the whole show”.

A new power struggle is emerging with long-time Nenzani and Moroe supporters Beresford Williams, the current vice-president, and controversial Eastern Province Cricket Union head Donovan May believed to be mounting campaigns to succeed Nenzani.

KwaZulu-Natal president Ben Dladla, who has helped rebuild a strong Dolphins franchise, is also rumoured to be in the running, although he has not been a member of the CSA Board. Northerns Cricket Union president Tebogo Siko, a Board member since last September, is also perhaps in contention.

But in the shadowy world of secret CSA meetings and internal politics, credible leadership has been in short supply.

Chris Nenzani has resigned as Cricket South Africa president bringing to an end a seven-year reign that has left the sport on the brink of collapse and in surely it’s most unhappiest place ever, but funerals for the careers of several other long-standing CSA administrators might not be on the immediate horizon.

Cricket South Africa gave no reasons for Nenzani’s resignation in their statement on Monday morning, which comes just three weeks before his record-breaking term, twice extended by constitutional amendments, was due to come to an end at the AGM on September 5.

An insider told The Citizen that they were told Nenzani had resigned “because of the cloud over CSA, too much is pointing back to the organisation and he wants to help clear the path for a new leader”.

Another insider pointed to the increasing influence of independent director and chairperson of the Transformation Committee, Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, who “is now running the whole show”.

Typically of an organisation in chaos, there has been some confusion over who is now acting as president. It had been presumed that vice-president Beresford Williams would step up to president in an acting capacity, but it seems the MOI states that the Members Council will have to elect the acting president. That is expected to be done in the next couple of days, but in the meantime company secretary Welsh Gwaza, a controversial figure with strong ties to suspended CEO Thabang Moroe, will be acting president.

CSA’s administrators are mostly all about power though and Nenzani’s departure has ensured a slightly earlier start to the jostling to replace him. The likes of Williams, a former Western Province Cricket Association president, and Donovan May, the controversial Eastern Province Cricket Union president, and both firm supporters of both Nenzani and Moroe in recent years, are both believed to be making bids for the presidency.

There are few people on the Board who have ornate enough CVs to be considered credible presidential material, however. Tebogo Siko, the president of the highly successful Northerns Cricket Union, is possibly going to make a run for president, but he has only been on the Board since last September.

An outsider who could really rock the boat is KwaZulu-Natal president Ben Dladla. The Dolphins have enjoyed an impressive resurgence under his watch and it is believed the Durbanite will stand for the presidency as well.

Given the low bar set by the current Board, a fresh face, untainted by the excesses of the previous years, is probably just what cricket needs in its current dire situation.

South African cricket is in a very sad and angry space at the moment, with the festering sores from years of poor leadership exploding in an awful throbbing spasm of pus and pain.

As ever in this country, the battle lines seem to have been drawn along racial lines and the prime targets of the baying mob are Whites in management positions. I can only describe it as being very sad when one of this country’s best administrators, someone who has shown more commitment to genuine transformation i.e. the type that changes lives; the Proteas’ greatest captain, who ushered in a new era of embracing diversity; and an icon of the game in this country; are singled out as the arch-racists and enemies of transformation, without any credible evidence being provided.

This week the Khaya Zondo/Dean Elgar selection controversy, dating back to an ODI in India in 2015, was brought up. AB de Viliers has been allotted all the blame, but what of the very vocal Hussein Manack, who was the selector on tour, and Ashwell Prince, also a national selector at the time? What of coach Russell Domingo? Why are they not expected to answer for what some people have portrayed as blatant discrimination?

There were good cricket reasons for the decision, and it would certainly be helpful for those men to explain them.

It is sadly typical of this country where accountability only seems to mean adding up the riches you have gained through corrupt means, that the voices given the biggest platforms have been those found guilty of the worst betrayal of the game – being involved in matchfixing.

I fully expect that MSW radio show (Does it stand for Matchfixers’ Sports Worldwide?) to follow up next week’s interviews with Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Alviro Petersen, after three episodes of Thami Tsolekile, with chats with Gulam Bodi, Saleem Malik, Mohammed Azharuddin and Mohammad Asif. The coup de grace, the scoop to end all scoops, might well be a séance with Hansie Cronje. Or maybe not, for the same reason that Jean Symes hasn’t been invited into studio yet.

But all this has not been the saddest thing I have heard in South African cricket this week.

My heart was well and truly broken when the Central Gauteng Lions, so often at the forefront of efforts to advance society, held the virtual launch of their campaign against gender-based violence. It was a sobering experience to listen to the terrible stories of abuse that were revealed by a Proteas Women cricketer and an administrator at the union. Their bravery was nothing short of inspirational.

The Proteas cricketer spoke about how she was suicidal at the age of seven after abuse from within her extended family left her with serious, and understandable, anger issues. Sport was an escape from what was happening at home for her.

The administrator revealed she was sexually abused as a child and was a witness to awful violence in the home, eventually leading to a mental breakdown.

“Men need to accept that they are doing this, we are not harming ourselves. Men need to talk amongst themselves, start having conversations about gender-based violence,” she said, which I think is very good advice indeed.

It would also be a very good idea, as mooted previously by former Proteas manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee, for cricket as a whole to have a Truth and Reconciliation process. It would be wonderful to hear from those Black cricketers who fought their way to the top, who are not embittered by the wrong choices they made in life or by the ruthless misfortune that accompanies elite sport, about the genuine barriers they had to overcome and whether those obstacles are still in place.

But, as Moosajee also pointed out, it has to be independently driven because Cricket South Africa have just about zero credibility at the moment.

There is so much talent in this country, but we all need to pull together for the common good, not narrow personal agendas, to ensure a much brighter cricketing future than what we are currently experiencing.

While a lengthy labour court battle lies in store for former CEO Thabang Moroe, the Cricket South Africa Board have more battles to fight this week after a group calling themselves Cricket United 2020 demanded that they consult them in any transformation policies and the Social Justice Network mechanism set up recently.

Cricket United 2020 is made up of the 40 black former Proteas cricketers and senior coaches who held a meeting with the CSA Board at the end of last month, but they released a statement on Wednesday night asking CSA to adhere to their agreement from that meeting to properly engage with the concerned Black stakeholders.

“We request that CSA adhere to the commitment to allow engagement and consultation with us and the relevant decision makers at CSA, namely the Board, CEO, Director of Cricket and relevant Proteas team management within the next 7 days. We are not here to break the system, it is already broken. Subsequently, following the process outlined by that commitment by the president and board we were alerted that the Transformation Policy had been signed off by the Board without any consultation with relevant coaches, ex-players, current players and other roleplayers,” the statement read.

Unfortunately CSA were in no place to respond publicly to Cricket United 2020 on Thursday because the Board was embroiled in an all-day meeting to decide the fate of Moroe, who was suspended last December. The former CEO was supposed to present his case to the Board on Thursday but it seems unlikely he bothered because he had instructed lawyers to prepare an indictment the night before to stop the board meeting.

It seems likely that the Board will dismiss Moroe, who will then take his case to the CCMA and ultimately labour court. But CSA have shown they are quite prepared to spend thousands dragging these matters through litigation until the complainant’s money runs out. It will also give them a handy excuse to delay making the forensic audit public, because many believe they are implicated in Moroe’s wrongdoing as well.

The one statement that did emerge on Thursday came from Director of Cricket Graeme Smith, who responded to allegations of racism made against him when he was the Proteas captain from 2002/3 to 2013/14.

“I should emphasise that I was never in charge of selections. I had an opinion as the captain, but the casting vote was with the coach and the selectors. In the case of the 2012 tour to England, which Thami Tsolekile has alluded to, there was a whole panel of selectors. Thami was in the squad as reserve ‘keeper and this was communicated to him on both the England and Australia tours by Gary Kirsten.

“It was international sport and there were some very tough decisions made. Decisions which I have been on the undesired side of myself. I was left out on the brink of the 2003 World Cup, having played the whole year before that; I was left out of a Test team and Ashwell Prince flown up to play ahead of me. I felt I still had more to give in ODI cricket when I was dropped. It hurt, but I had to knuckle down and accept it.

“Over time, I have grown to understand that it was the right call for the team. And that has always been the crux of the decisions made in my time, they were the best for the team. I have tried my level best to explain the decisions that I have made in my time as captain and I am happy to engage in discussions in the right forum, even if it is uncomfortable because I think we can only learn from our past,” Smith said.