Ken Borland

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Hopes that Cricket South Africa’s new board will steer the sport’s administration away from the scandals of the Gerald Majola era look set to be dashed because the new dispensation seems to be merely setting up a fresh cabal that includes several fierce supporters of the former chief executive.

The new regime at CSA will revolve around lead independent director Norman Arendse and the current board is dominated by his supporters.

The new board is made up of people like Andy O’Connor, who was Majola’s right-hand man, and Peter Cyster, another strong supporter of the central figure in the bonus scandal. The new directors come from provinces like Griqualand West, Easterns, Border and Boland.

The new CSA non-independent directors, elected on February 2, are president Chris Nenzani (Border), vice-president Cyster (Boland), O’Connor (Easterns), Beresford Williams (WP), Graeme Sauls (EP), Fa-eez Jaffar (KZN) and Rihan Richards (GW).

When the nominations committee initially recommended Arendse for one of the independent directorships, the CSA board were vehemently opposed to his appointment. Now, less than four months later, that same board has voted Arendse as the lead independent director and it seems favours were offered to secure his appointment.

Cyster was previously totally opposed to Arendse but is believed to have voted for him and is now the vice-president. Graeme Sauls, who has been on the board for just three months and has been an anonymous figure, is president of Eastern Province who were fierce opponents of Arendse. But they too are believed to have gone for him and Sauls now has a seat on the board of directors. Richards is another provincial president who has only been on the board for a short, anonymous while and is now a director.

Those smaller provinces have recently been getting more international games and there is the fear that Nenzani’s new board will just be puppets run by Arendse.

And neither government nor Sascoc are likely to interfere in CSA’s return to gravy-train administration, despite both of them signing the Nicholson Commission’s findings and agreeing to help implement all of the retired judge’s recommendations.

While sports minister Fikile Mbalula can’t really flex his muscles anymore in the wake of backing the wrong horse at Mangaung, there is perhaps a more sinister reason why Sascoc have ditched their original support for Nicholson’s recommendations and backed Arendse in his bid to be considered as an independent director despite the fact that he is an honorary life president of Western Province cricket.

Arendse can go to Western Province board meetings and vote, but he said he does not participate. But anyone who is aware of Arendse’s domineering personality will find that hard to believe. When he was the president of CSA between 2007 and 2008 he tried to do the jobs of both the CEO and the convenor of selectors. Merely observing is not this man’s style.

The same rule that stated independent directors could not have been involved in cricket for three years counted against SK Reddy from KZN, but for Arendse it’s okay.

Sascoc’s about-turn perhaps has its roots in an allegation of attempted bribery Arendse made against their president, Gideon Sam, that was revealed a year ago.

Arendse alleged that while he was chairing the adjudication committee for a R7-billion state tender in 2008 he was offered an “open chequebook” bribe by an individual claiming to represent Cash Paymaster Services (CPS).
Arendse refused to confirm or deny the identity of the inducer, but the Mail & Guardian said Arendse named Sam when he recorded the incident.   http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2012-02-24-name-your-price-bribe-offer-for-r7billion-rand-tender

The tender is now the subject of court action by one of the bidders who failed to win the contract, but it could be telling that Advocate Arendse never reported the attempted bribe to the police, as required by South African law.

The franchises are almost bankrupt and always begging for money, which is how CSA keep them under control. CSA are always pleading poverty, but their income from broadcast rights runs into 10 figures every four years. Apparently, independent directors at some franchises have refused to sign the annual reports because technically the franchise is insolvent.

The best people for the jobs are certainly not being elected at CSA, even though the Companies Act states quite clearly that directors must always act in the best interests of the company and not themselves. The same people who ignored the Companies Act in allowing Majola his free reign are ignoring the same law again.

Both Archie Pretorius of North-West, the chief forensic auditor for one of the leading mining houses, and chartered accountant Vincent Sinovich, who were coincidentally two of the minority who were critical of Majola, have been sidelined as directors.

Cyster, a dentist, is now the non-independent director who sits on the finance committee.

And there could be further trouble ahead for CSA when it comes to appointing their new CEO to replace Jacques Faul.

Former International Cricket Council CEO and Proteas selection convenor Haroon Lorgat is the overwhelming favourite for the post, but that could be disastrous for South Africa’s standing in international cricket politics.

Reports from India make it clear that the Board of Control For Cricket in India will be reconsidering the special relationship between the two countries should Lorgat be appointed.

The former ICC CEO was the chief nemesis for the BCCI when it came to furthering their agenda at the global level and the way leading Indian administrators have openly taken the credit for Lorgat’s contract not being renewed suggests the same bad reaction will afflict the alliance between them and South Africa.

Newly-elected acting president Willie Basson said on Wednesday that his aim as the new head of Cricket South Africa (CSA) was to improve the standard of the administration so that it rivalled the professionalism of the national team on the field.
Basson was elected on Saturday to take over from AK Khan, who was also an acting president before resigning last week in the wake of the Nicholson Inquiry which found CSA chief executive Gerald Majola had “surreptitiously” received 1.8 million rand ($237,000) in unauthorised bonuses from the Indian Premier League, as well as irregular travel expenses, in contravention of the Companies Act.
Khan had headed CSA’s own investigation which cleared Majola of any serious wrongdoing, but which was subsequently described as a “cover-up” by the Nicholson Inquiry.
“A personal motivation for my decision to become involved is a long-standing concern for the large gap between the level of professionalism of the on-field activities as opposed to the off-field activities. This gap is a burning issue. In 40 years of being involved in sport, I’ve never come to terms with how much the players sacrifice but administrators, in general, just bumble along and hardly ever face any consequences, except when they’re up for re-election every two years. It’s a major irritation for me, this obvious weakness has to be aggressively addressed and we have to raise the bar.

“The time has come for those responsible for guiding and executing off-the-field activities to have better game plans, executed more effectively and efficiently,” Basson told a news conference in Centurion on Wednesday.

Having suspended Majola pending an independent disciplinary inquiry as per the recommendations of the Nicholson Inquiry, Basson said the CSA board would now place Judge Chris Nicholson’s other main edict – that the governing body should undergo a review of its corporate structure – in the hands of experts.

“The mere fact that we have acknowledged the Nicholson report and accepted it in principle, means we have laid the foundation to appoint competent people to look at a re-invented cricket system. But it’s essentially a legal document and we need to translate it in the light of practicalities for a sports system, so that it leads to an improvement in the administration of the game,” Basson said.

The veteran cricket administrator was previously the chairman of CSA’s transformation committee and he said this would be a key focus in his term.

“In the light of the minister of sport’s recent comments on the status of transformation in the country’s major sporting codes, it will be a high priority item. The board has recently in principle approved a model that will be considered by the transformation committee tomorrow [Thursday]. A fund to support transformation initiatives at provincial level has also been established and is the first in the country,” Basson said.
Basson said restoring the battered image of CSA would also be one of the board’s areas of focus.

“The complex process of damage control of CSA’s reputation and image on the basis of systematic and on-going communication with stakeholders will be an important focus area. CSA is under no illiusion … cricket is beleagured and its image and reputation have been dented over an extended period of time. Image is any organisation’s biggest asset and the process will require cool heads. We have to pinpoint where our image has been harmed and the reasons for the negative public opinion,” Basson said.

The board of Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Saturday suspended chief executive Gerald Majola pending an independent disciplinary inquiry and agreed to follow the recommendations of the Nicholson Inquiry into the bonus scandal that has engulfed the administration of the game in the republic.

The Nicholson Inquiry, appointed by sports minister Fikile Mbalula, found that Majola had “surreptitiously” received R1.8 million in unauthorised bonuses, as well as irregular travel expenses, in contravention of the Companies Act.

Majola had initially been cleared of any serious wrongdoing by a CSA inquiry headed by acting president AK Khan, who has since resigned.

“The board of directors of CSA considered the recommendations of the Nicholson Committee of Inquiry and, after lengthy deliberations, have resolved to rescind all the findings of the Khan commission and to suspend Majola with immediate effect pending a disciplinary inquiry,” board member Oupa Nkagisang told a news conference in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The CSA board also elected a new acting president to replace Khan in experienced administrator and transformation committee chairman Willie Basson, while Jacques Faul of the North-West province has been appointed acting CEO.

Judge Chris Nicholson had announced on March 9 that Majola should face an independent disciplinary inquiry as well as possible criminal charges. Former ICC president Ray Mali, who chaired Saturday’s CSA meeting, confirmed that outside experts would handle Majola’s disciplinary process.

“We will have to get eminent people, reputable people, so that there are no comebacks. The board will meet on March 30 to decide who will head the disciplinary inquiry, but it has to be an independent person,” Mali said.

Mali said the board had considered dissolving itself.

“The entire issue of dissolving the board did come up, but that can only be decided by the affiliates and provinces. The board also discussed the New Zealand and Australian models of corporate governance and the Lord Woolf document that is at the ICC, but we have to engage the affiliates and outside stakeholders about that. It’s not just a CSA matter.”

The CSA board stopped short of issuing an apology for their backing of Majola, despite Mbalula making a suggestion on Friday that they should all stand down because they have lost the respect of the South African public.

When asked if the CSA board were apologetic, Mali said: “If the spirit of cricket is not there, then it is not palatable, and it has not been there for the last two years. Cricket needs gentlemen and ladies, people who are above board, but things have not gone well.

“The steps we took were based on the recommendations of people we believe were properly qualified – accountants and lawyers,” Mali said.