Ken Borland

“The media are the ones fuelling racism,” is not one of the greetings one expects during an Ahmed Kathrada Foundation webinar to discuss racism in cricket, but that was the opening gambit of new Cricket South Africa independent director Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, who is also the head of their transformation committee.

Kula-Ameyaw has led the way in establishing the Cricket for Social Justice and Nation-Building imbizo, which will manage players’ complaints of racism within the system. She raised the ire of many, however, by withdrawing an invitation for CSA acting chief executive Jacques Faul and director of cricket Graeme Smith to attend the first meeting. And she has also revealed some of her own biases in denying the CSA Board has any culpability in the racism issues and blaming the media for them.

“As part of the transformation charter, I have done a situation analysis and the issues are around the White management and that there are no protocols for reporting racism so we are not able to confront issues. The media are the ones fuelling racism and they must be taken into a workshop and taught about the law; affirmative action is a law of redress.

“But the Board have been called ‘Capturers’ – it’s about a certain racial group and excluding others. But I have sent a report to the president of CSA and when we get to the cricket TRC then I will bring evidence. If these people are really journalists then they need to be balanced, because we are not holding them accountable, they are out to push a certain agenda. The criticism of the Board is unfair,” Kula-Ameyaw said when asked about whether there is racism in cricket.

The social entrepreneur and strategist (according to her own website) said CSA’s use of quotas was doing well, but in the same breath blamed the organisation’s executive staff for Black players not playing more often for the Proteas.

“Quotas obviously help because you don’t know what I can do, what my strengths are, if you don’t open the door. But in the international game there are some Black players who have only played five matches in a year while others played 17. The systematic issue was selection and if players complain then they are told they have an attitude and they are buried alive. If you speak out, you are isolated.

“Black players are using the stories of their hardships to define themselves and we will look at every case on its own merits – there are always three stories, mine, yours and the truth. But in terms of accountability, the executive must report to the Board and explain why some Black players only played five times and others get 17 games. Racism exists and I feel so sad this happens in the sporting federation I serve,” Kula-Ameyaw said.

As if the global Covid-19 pandemic has not disrupted the international cricket calendar enough, the Indian Premier League has now moved to September, which Cricket South Africa Director of Cricket Graeme Smith said has put paid to any hopes of the Proteas being in action before November.

South Africa were scheduled to play series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka before summer, but Smith admitted at the weekend that those commitments were now on the back burner. The IPL, meanwhile, has taken advantage of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia being postponed until next year, and will be held in the UAE, starting on September 19.

South Africans scheduled to play in the IPL include Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi for Chennai Super Kings, AB de Villiers, Chris Morris and Dale Steyn are in the Bangalore Royal Challengers squad, while Kagiso Rabada is contracted by the Delhi Capitals and Quinton de Kock is on the Mumbai Indians roster.

“The West Indies tour has been postponed indefinitely because now we’re struggling with the IPL – it looks like our players will be needed there at the beginning of September. We also don’t know when the Sri Lanka tour will be able to take place and in terms of the national women’s team, we are working on getting government permission for their tour to England next month.

“Hopefully November is going to be a very busy time for the national team, hopefully we can cram in all the tours we’ve missed out on, if all goes well and we get things up and running by then,” Smith said.

Faced by a barrage of criticism from certain sectors of the Black Lives Matter movement, Smith said he accepted the position of director of cricket in December in order to restore the reputation of the Proteas, who he previously led to the number one ranking in all formats. The 39-year-old reaffirmed his commitment to seeing that through.

“I was sad to see South African cricket fall from its perch, that’s why I got involved. Back in December it was absolute chaos in South African cricket, there was zero trust between anyone. I wanted to be part of the solution and now that it’s feeling chaotic again, you keep revisiting that. The narrative that a clique has taken over is really unfair and I did not appoint myself.

“I went through a rigorous interview process, led by mainly Black African people, and then I made a number of appointments in December – Volvo Masubelele as manager, Justin Ontong, Charl Langeveldt, Mark Boucher, Enoch Nkwe and the medical staff. The appointment of Paul Harris as a consultant was made around Keshav Maharaj’s request and Jacques Kallis was an interim consultant, he has not been on CSA’’s payroll for many months. But we would be stupid not to involve one of the most successful batsmen in the world,” Smith said.

Smith said he was not invited to the inaugural Social Justice and Nation-Building meeting that arose from the BLM movement, but he hoped to be involved going forward. He said it was crucial to co-operate with Black players in order to ensure they could be comfortable in the Proteas environment.

“We want to create a better environment going forward, we’ve got to create a culture in which everyone feels safe to talk. I was most surprised that the players did not feel they had a voice in the past. Hopefully CSA will involve us in the Social Justice project now after the Board asked us not to be part of the first one. We should all want to be part of the solution. “I was very taken aback by the Makhaya Ntini stuff. I never thought of him as being the silent type when I first came into the Proteas team, he was one of the senior players, and he gave me a different explanation for running to the ground and not coming on the bus. But as the only Black African it must have been tough for him and it’s important that nobody else feels that way,” Smith said.

Cricket South Africa Director of Cricket Graeme Smith on Saturday described all the leaks coming from the organisation – many of which have promoted falsehoods targeting him personally – as a “cancer” and said the e-mails he had sent to the Board complaining about them had not yet been addressed.

Smith has even had his contract details leaked to the media and there was also a fraudulent document circulated which alleged he was a shareholder in 3TCricket.

“These leaks are a cancer within the organisation and you just wonder who in a senior position would do this? What is their end goal? It’s clearly a high-profile person because of some of the stuff that has been leaked. This kind of thing doesn’t help build relations, it feels like some people have ulterior motives, so we end up spending all our time speaking about these things and not the game.

“I have written a few e-mails about it to the president [Chris Nenzani], the board and the company secretary [Welsh Gwaza], who has been part of all my processes. And there hasn’t been a huge response. But it was good to see the president put a few things straight in an article today and there are a lot of very good people in CSA, especially at staff level, in cricket services,” Smith said in a teleconference on Saturday.

While Smith defended his appointment as director of cricket, saying he had gone through the whole chain of appropriate processes, and was keen to continue in the role, he added that he would step aside if there was someone better equipped for the job. He also defended his choice of Mark Boucher as national coach.

“I feel I have been extremely unfairly targeted over the appointments, I feel there’s a bit of an agenda. It comes back to why I got into the job in the first place – I wanted to put cricket straight and improve CSA as an organisation – and CSA courted me for a while. I went through the interview process and initially turned the job down. But in the absolute chaos of last December I decided I wanted to be part of the solution.

“I don’t feel like I’m going to be perfect or not get anything wrong, but my intentions and value system are good. But if someone can do a better job then they must tell me. I did not appoint myself, I went through a rigorous interview process presided over by mainly Black African people. You ask yourself what you can achieve in this role, but that’s why I decided to sign an extension to my contract.

“In terms of Mark Boucher, the team need a strong leader and he’s done enough coaching at domestic level and had a lot of success, his personality and experience is what was needed. He and Enoch Nkwe [assistant coach] can form a strong partnership, that’s an important dynamic. They are the right team to take the Proteas forward … theoretical qualifications are not the be-all and end-all,” Smith said.

It took some daring for Smith to accept the post of director of cricket back in December and South Africa’s most successful captain described CSA as being in “chaos” at the time.

“I fearfully got involved in December in a situation that was chaos, absolute chaos, there was zero trust between anyone. There’s still an element of internal agendas pulling in a lot of different directions and I would like to align those. Life was a lot simpler as a broadcaster! But I was sad to see South African cricket fall from its perch, that’s why I got involved.

“It’s feeling chaotic again, so I keep revisiting why I took the job in the first place. But you ask yourself lots of questions – What are the motives? What is the end game? What are these people trying to create because in the end it’s only the game that suffers. But I was captain for a long time so I have formulated ways of dealing with the stresses and public pressures of a high-profile job,” Smith said.

While Smith’s decision to take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement during the 3TCricket Solidarity Cup went down like a flat beer with those of a right-wing persuasion, the director of cricket said he did it to show he is serious about creating a South African cricket culture in which everyone can feel comfortable.

“The BLM movement provided the opportunity for everyone to have an open discussion before the Solidarity Cup, which is why we all decided to take a knee, to show solidarity to creating a better environment going forward. We’ve got to create a culture where everyone feels safe to talk. I was most surprised that players did not feel they had a voice in the past. “As far as I was aware, there have always been channels, but obviously these players did not feel that way, so hopefully we can improve on that. I was very taken aback by Makhaya Ntini’s stuff. When I came into the team, I never thought of him as being the silent type, he was a senior player then. He gave me a different explanation when I asked him about running to the ground and not taking the bus,” Smith said.

South African cricket was plunged into more uncertainty on Wednesday with the news that Cricket South Africa acting chief executive Jacques Faul will stand down on September 15.

The beleaguered organisation was already facing losses of close to a billion rand before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, it has still to make any meaningful progress on the charges laid against former CEO Thabang Moroe after a forensic audit – the contents of which are long overdue – and it is trying to douse the flames of allegations of past racism and criticism that their transformation programmes are a failure.

Faul was appointed by the CSA Board last December following Moroe’s suspension, the second time he has filled in as acting CEO, having stood in for Gerald Majola in 2012/13 after the bonus scandal. Since then he has mended the dysfunctional relationships CSA had with the players’ union and sponsors, ensured there has been no cost-cutting or retrenchments since the pandemic struck South Africa, and got high-profile figures like Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt back involved with the Proteas as the national team looks to rebound from a dismal 2019.

Faul’s initial contract ran through until June, but the CSA Board hired him for an additional three months.

While Faul said he could not comment on his resignation, a CSA Executive told The Citizen on Wednesday that the Doctor of Economic Management Science had e-mailed the Board to say that he will be standing down on September 15 and that he would inform CSA staff on Thursday.

A source close to Faul said the acting CEO was discouraged by the uncooperative relationship he had with some CSA Exco and Board members in trying to secure the financial future of the organisation and ensure that the Proteas remained competitive on the global stage.

Faul will not be lost to cricket, however, and will go back to his previous full-time position as chief executive of the Titans franchise and the Northerns Cricket Union.