Ken Borland

By most accounts, the final week of testimony in the Nicholson Inquiry should have been severely embarrassing to Cricket South Africa. Their board was described as “dysfunctional” and even CEO Gerald Majola was reduced to tears.

So it was widely anticipated that when they held a press conference at the Wanderers late last week – with the venue being moved to suit the media and reporters being promised they could ask anything – there would be an air of contrition in the air.

There was nothing of the sort.

President AK Khan was his usual slippery self, while Majola was defiant, prickly and downright aggressive at times.

Khan began by admitting: “It would be naive to say there has not been damage to South African cricket. Yes, reputations and relationships have been damaged”.

He then went on to criticise “wild allegations and unnecessary speculations” against CSA, before refusing to commit the organisation to the findings of the inquiry, appointed by sports minister Fikile Mbalula.

“I don’t want to pre-empt anything,” he said when asked if CSA would accept Judge Nicholson’s recommendations.

“The board will determine our response as soon as we receive the report. It would be very unfair to expect us to say ‘yes’ to the findings before we’ve seen the report,” Khan said.

So, in other words, CSA want to see what their punishment is and then decide whether to accept it.

This ridiculous state of affairs is like a convicted criminal telling the judge he will only accept his sentence if it is to his liking!

The CSA board have delayed sorting out the whole Majola bonus scandal for 18 months now and they still have the cheek to expect the South African cricket-loving public to wait while they decide whether the eminent Judge Nicholson has made a fair appraisal of the situation?

The issue should have been put to bed months ago, but the CSA board, who are continually bleating about how, despite most of them being successful businessmen, they “don’t know about corporate law and stuff,” clearly also have no moral compass.

Majola received a bonus from the disgraced Lalit Modi’s organising committee for his brilliant staging of the 2009 IPL, concealed it and then received another massive bonus from CSA for the same work. It’s as cut-and-dried as that and so clearly morally wrong that even a kindergarten kid could figure it out. And never mind the conflicts of interest that arose as the CEO kowtowed to the IPL – thereby earning his bonus – at the expense of his South African constituents, most notably the Gauteng Cricket Board.

Majola is the leader of the denialists, hiding behind his board and blaming everyone else for the mess he created and the cover-up he engineered.

“Ali Bacher did the same thing,” he said. Well Bacher did get a bonus for his running of the 2003 World Cup, but that was all minuted and known about and he most certainly didn’t receive a second windfall for the same work!

“All the issues were dealt with by the board and their decisions were unanimous, Nyoka was a part of that. I presented all the facts to the inquiry and Nyoka did not. He called me a liar, but I won’t call him one,” Majola said.

The word “unanimous” and spurious press releases claiming the players are supporting Majola have been used often by CSA in their disinformation campaign, but I have been personally told by board members after meetings that they have voted against the proposals!

“The terms of reference for the inquiry are not about Gerald Majola and it has nothing to do with me, I was just there to assist. The inquiry is based on whether the board applied their mind in making their decisions,” Majola wriggled out.

My favourite part of the press conference was when Majola began praising his work in hosting the 2009 IPL as the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to South African cricket.

“People don’t understand the magnitude of the spin-offs that tournament has to South African cricket. The entire public benefited, it brought R2 billion into this country. It was the best ever tournament in South Africa and now it’s all been reduced to being about a million rand! I have better things to do with my time … ” Majola raged.

It reminded me of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s hit musical Evita, about Eva Peron, the powerful wife of Argentine president Colonel Juan Peron.

Colonel Peron is telling a press conference how wonderful Evita is and ends with the line “she’s the one who’s kept us where we are”; to which the reporters reply: “she’s the one who’s kept YOU where YOU are”.

To Gerald Majola, I would say, The IPL has kept you flush with cash, but for the rest of us it has been a sordid scandal that has done massive damage to the game in this country.