Ken Borland

South African cricket has lost its position of influence in the global game according to both the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Interim Board and the minister of sport, which is part of the reason they have been treated with such disdain by Cricket Australia (CA).

CSA have lodged an official complaint against CA with the International Cricket Council (ICC) over Australia’s failure to honour their commitment to a Test tour that was meant to start on February 24, ostensibly due to fears over Covid-19. But South African cricket, now represented by the acting president of the Members Council, Rihan Richards, have reportedly lost their voice in the ICC hallways of power so it would be no surprise if their calls for compensation fall on deaf ears.

“South Africa have always enjoyed a position of prominence in international cricket, but of late it seems their standing is the opposite of that,” sports minister Nathi Mthethwa said in his opening comments during a virtual report-back session with the Interim Board on Friday.

“CSA has lost its place of prestige in the ICC, which is no surprise because there has been so much internal struggle in South African cricket and therefore a lack of focus on affairs at the ICC. That has allowed an imbalance in world cricket and we have a long way to restore our reputation.

“CA has been referred by us, but there are hints that The Big Three might reform themselves. CSA needs to get their house in order in order to return to a position of influence,” Interim Board member Haroon Lorgat, a former CEO of the ICC, added.

Dr Stavros Nicolaou, the chairman of the Interim Board, said the likely complete cancellation of the Australian tour showed CSA needed to work on establishing stronger relationships with countries like India.

“I’m not sure we’re going to be able to postpone the Australian tour to a suitable date even though we consulted widely with their medical team and their medical experts. The balance of power in international cricket has been brought into question. We need to strengthen our strategic position and we ned to tap into our other relationships with India, for example through BRICS.

“There was extensive consultation with CA and we made significant upgrades to our biosecure bubble, acceded to all of their demands. Then at the beginning of the month they advised us the tour would not proceed which was extremely disappointing. They said we had hit the peak of our second wave and our strain was more virulent, but on the day they notified us, we had a 75% reduction in cases and our strain is not more virulent but more contagious,” Nicolaou said.

Mthethwa also said he has full confidence in the Interim Board and their ability to deliver the AGM in the next couple of months.

“The Interim Board has not disappointed us, their initial appointment was for three months from October but we made provision to extend that and we are satisfied with the work they have done. The Interim Board understands the importance of transformation and they are not compromising on that. Some delays in their work have not been in their control, such as disciplinary processes.

“But I have full confidence in the Interim Board, they have been reporting to me and I am confident that the stance they have taken in disciplinary matters is according to the book, I have no fears about that. It is concerning though that there are these distractions that are trying to take our eyes off the ball. But I am glad that the Interim Board is consistently focused on the task at hand,” Mthethwa said.

Nicolaou committed the Interim Board to completing their work in the next two months.

“The implementation of the Nicholson recommendations are our most important task, to modernise, strengthen and enhance CSA’s governance. Professor Michael Katz, the foremost expert on that, has been given the mandate for that and has shared an amended MoI with us. That needs to be agreed to by the Members Council at a special general meeting which we envisage happening in the first two weeks of March.

“That will provide the platform for us to go to the AGM, which we anticipate happening between April 10-17, when a new permanent board, and an appropriate gap between them and the Members Council, and a new era for cricket will be inaugurated. But we have no control over the timing of disciplinary processes, they are both objective and independent, and postponements and delays are not unexpected,” Nicolaou said.

Not even calling in the service of government to grant the Australian cricket team VIP travelling status to South Africa was enough for Cricket Australia (CA), as they pulled the plug on their scheduled three-Test series against the Proteas on Tuesday.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) released a statement on Tuesday recording there “immense disappointment” at CA’s decision, which they described as “regrettable”. In the diplomatic world of corporate press statements, this was a strongly-worded criticism.

Which was not surprising considering how CSA have bent over backwards to try and accommodate the Australians.

Apart from granting the Australian touring party VIP passage to and from the airport, CSA had also offered up the Irene Country Lodge for their exclusive use, meaning the Proteas would have moved to a different hotel. They have also altered their travel plans for the ongoing Pakistan tour, bringing the Test squad back early and sending a second-string outfit for the T20 series.

“The protocols we had proposed to CA were unprecedented. Firstly, we had agreed that our own Proteas team would enter the bio-secure environment [BSE] 14 days prior to the arrival of the Australian team, thus altering our planning during the current tour of Pakistan. Amongst some of the other key arrangements made were that all four areas – two hotels and two venues – had a protocol to implement a strict BSE with no contact with anybody outside this area. 

“We subsequently agreed to two separate BSEs and had granted Australia full and exclusive use of the Irene Country Lodge, which we shared with Sri Lanka, with a minimum staff present on site. In terms of the arrangements, the Proteas were to move to a separate hotel altogether. Furthermore, all hotel staff, match officials and even bus drivers were to enter the BSE 14 days prior to Australia’s arrival. 

“In addition, CSA had also committed to importing an Australian tracking system at great cost to ensure proper tracking of close contacts in the event of a positive test. The touring team was also going to be granted VIP access through the airports, after government intervention to ensure this privilege. These are just some of the protocols that CSA was to put in place. We had really gone the extra mile to make sure that the tour would proceed,” CSA’s chief medical officer Dr Shuaib Manjra said.

Given the suspicion of CSA’s BSE protocols, which have enabled them to host a Test series against Sri Lanka without incident, and a visit by England in which none of the touring players contracted Covid-19, as well as stage the Momentum One-Day Cup in Potchefstroom without a single positive test, it seems South African cricket’s station in global cricket in the near future will be a long way removed from the Big Three of Australia, England and India.

“It is indeed sad that after all the engagements and effort made to ensure a secure visit by our Australian counterparts, the tour has been derailed. CSA has incurred significant costs related to the planning stages and the cancellation of the tour represents a serious financial loss. In this challenging period for cricket and its member countries, we believe the stance taken by CA is regrettable and will have a serious impact on the sustainability of the less-wealthy cricket-playing nations,” CSA acting chief executive officer Pholetsi Moseki said.

Given how late CA have pulled out – they were due to arrive in two weeks time – those losses are estimated to be around the R50 million mark.

And now the pieces are starting to fall into place.

Many people were taken by surprise when CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith, totally unprompted, announced his support for Indian cricket chief Sourav Ganguly to become the new ICC chairman. It was an opinion which was backed by CSA chief executive Jacques Faul.

It was a development that certainly took CSA president Chris Nenzani by surprise, wherever he has been hiding out from the justice that surely deserves to be meted out to him for all but destroying our cricket. He has been silent about all the important matters that have been going on in the game in 2020, such as the efforts to rebuild South African cricket, all the disciplinary hearings that are going on, the resignations of board directors and even the Covid-19 crisis.

But Nenzani poked his head above the parapet to put Smith and Faul right, talking about things like “due process” when it comes to Board matters. What he was really saying was “Graeme and Jacques, you look after the onfield matters and leave the politics to me”.

The reason Nenzani suddenly saw fit to do something presidential was, of course, that he has designs on being the next ICC chairman himself. Which is an absolutely laughable proposition because the rest of the world knows how thoroughly self-serving and incompetent he has been in running the South African game.

It would seem, however, that Smith and Faul have a better grasp of global cricket politics than Nenzani does. In fact I am certain of this because I remember Nenzani telling the media in December 2017 in Port Elizabeth that they would force India to release players for the T20 Global League by refusing South African players permission to play in the IPL!

And now this week we have the news that the ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia in October/November, is likely to be postponed.

That would allow India to fill that gap with the IPL, which is massively important for them as the richest event in world cricket. India, largely on the back of the success of the IPL, bring in around 65% of global cricket revenue and are also the most lucrative team to host because of the massive broadcast rights fees their national team demands. That is why other countries are quite understandably eager to keep in India’s good books.

India are scheduled to make a full tour of Australia from October which is critical for the finances of the game Down Under. But they will need to abide by Australian government public health protocols which are likely to include lengthy quarantine periods and lockdowns, which will not be very pleasant for them.

And that is why Cricket Australia, who stand to make A$300 million from the tour, are falling over backwards to appease India. As a reward for the BCCI agreeing to tour, Australia look set to accept the postponement of the ICC T20 World Cup (it wasn’t even on the summer schedule they announced this week) thereby creating a window for the IPL to be held.

From a South African viewpoint, it seems that Smith and Faul, who travelled to India before Lockdown for very constructive meetings with Ganguly and the BCCI, are in on the game and have said they would be comfortable with the ICC T20 World Cup being shifted to February/March next year. And they have also publicly backed Ganguly.

The pay-off for South African cricket is that India seem committed to coming here at the end of August for three T20s that could add some $50 million to CSA’s depleted coffers.

The importance of India as a global roleplayer in cricket should not be underestimated and the vitriol they are often subjected to is also unwarranted. The fact is they bring the most money into the game because Indians love cricket more than any other nation, and so they should have one of the loudest voices in the ICC boardroom.

The key, of course, is for them to use that power responsibly, and Smith and Faul certainly seem assured that Ganguly, who started India’s blossoming as a global power as captain back in 2000, understands what is best for the modern game as a whole.

As a spokesman for maintaining successful relationships with their players, Cricket Australia would hardly seem to be the first people one would ask for advice, but that is what the Cricket South Africa leadership have elected to do as they approach negotiations with their own players on their new memorandum of understanding.

The revenue-sharing model that has underpinned the memorandum of understanding the players have had with CSA for the last 12 years will come to the end of its four-year cycle in April and fresh negotiations with the players’ union, the South African Cricketers’ Association, are set to start within the next month.

Astonishingly, considering that Cricket Australia spent most of the year trying to ward off a strike by their own players that threatened the Ashes, acting CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe has confirmed that they will be seeking Cricket Australia’s advice in how to contract players.

Cricket Australia received a bloody nose when all their players stood together to stop the administrators from hogging all the new money coming in from the Big Bash, instead ensuring that every state cricketer, both male and female, enjoyed a share of the riches.

It seems only fair that the players should share in the revenue that is accrued mostly due to their talents, but that’s not how Moroe sees things judging by his ill-considered comments just after Christmas about CSA making the money and not the players, who are basically employees who must do what they are told.

For CSA to say they make the money is simply outrageous, considering the amount of money that has been wasted due to their own negligence in the T20 Global League false-start, for which cricket in this country will be paying for a long time.

An antagonistic approach to the players is also extremely shortsighted because there are so many opportunities abroad now for the players, options that will pay up to four times more than they can earn here in South Africa. Many of our top stars are only staying because they feel a responsibility towards the game and for the younger players coming through the system, an attitude that is engendered by the revenue-sharing model that makes them stakeholders in the overall welfare of the sport.

Cricket South Africa are heading for a collision course with their most valuable – and sought-after – assets if the approach so brazenly bellowed out by their leadership is carried into negotiations.

There is a certain old-fashioned naivety about their strident apporoach because they really cannot compete with overseas offers on an economic basis so they really need to keep their players happy.

Similarly, the implication that they will convince the Board of Control for Cricket in India to release their players for the T20 Global League because they will threaten to prevent South African players from participating in the IPL is outlandish. Preventing our best stars from maximising their earnings in the best-paid league in the world will simply chase them away permanently to foreign shores.

A mass exodus of top players would be a disastrous setback for the game, leading to a huge loss in earning from sponsors and broadcasters – the Proteas are currently still an attraction because of the world-class stars they possess – and would ultimately stymie any plans CSA have for the further development of the game.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20180106/282355450131976