Ken Borland

Women’s Day – and it’s motto: “you strike a woman, you strike a rock” – is all about celebrating the courage and strength of women in South Africa and, in cricketing terms, Elise Lombard was the very epitome of those words.

Elise was the guest speaker at Cricket South Africa’s Women’s Day celebration on August 8 and spoke with great passion about the game she served so well for over 30 years.

So it was with great shock and sadness that the South African cricket fraternity learnt of Elise’s passing the next day, ironically on Women’s Day, which is meant to celebrate heroines exactly like her.

What set Elise apart as the CEO of Titans and Northerns cricket was her ability to combine a gentle, caring touch with tremendous leadership skills, business acumen and organisational excellence.

Although her shock passing will forever taint the memory of that day, CSA’s 2012 Women’s Day function was meant to be a celebration and what a party it was!

CSA has retained a wonderful team spirit and the female staff were able to let their hair down in a series of challenges involving dancing and singing.

National women’s captain Mignon du Preez has a lot on her plate at the moment ahead of the ICC Women’s T20 in Sri Lanka, but she took time out to report back on the team’s preparations, which have been nothing short of exhaustive.

South Africa have been drawn in the same group as hosts Sri Lanka, New Zealand and the West Indies, but Du Preez said her team’s confidence has been boosted by their recent series against world leaders England and the England Academy.

Women’s cricket has unfairly been dubbed as “butch” in the past, but Du Preez, alongside the likes of Dane van Niekerk, Yolandi van der Westhuizen and Shandre Fritz, showed the glamorous, athletic side of the sport.

“There’s not that much awareness about women’s cricket and there’s a misperception, people think you have to be butch to play cricket. But cricket is for any girls – and pretty ones too!” the petite Du Preez smiled.

The rise of the women’s game in South Africa is something Elise Lombard was fully behind. The game of cricket would be much the poorer if it weren’t for the contribution of all the wonderful women who add so much.

Wayne Parnell is unlikely to be in any trouble with Cricket South Africa over allegations he took recreational drugs in India, CSA acting chief executive Jacques Faul told supersport.com on Monday.

Parnell, who was in India playing for the Pune Warriors in the Indian Premier League, was arrested in Mumbai in May during a police raid on a rave party. He and Indian spinner Rahul Sharma were, along with nearly 90 other people, given drug tests and, on July 20, television stations in India reported police had confirmed positive tests for the duo.

But Faul said CSA’s efforts to get official confirmation of these reports had so far been in vain.

“We’ve been trying to get official word from the BCCI and Indian police, but so far we’ve got nothing. The Indian police haven’t yet laid a charge against Wayne,” Faul said.

Faul added that for CSA to take action against the international they would need far greater evidence than what has currently been made available to them.

“To take action against Wayne will be next to impossible at the moment because the whole process over there has been shambolic. The police are talking to some sections of the media but not to the cricket boards, the whole testing procedure was not done according to the standards that normally apply in sport and Wayne would be able to contest any action we take with absolute ease,” Faul said.

Parnell, who has always claimed his innocence and said he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time”, has allegedly tested positive for marijuana and will more than likely base his defence on the passive smoking principle i.e. other people at the party were smoking marijuana and he breathed some in just by being in the same room.

Parnell celebrates his 23rd birthday on Monday and the news that CSA are unlikely to take any action against him will be a great present ahead of a crucial summer for the left-arm paceman.

http://www.supersport.com/cricket/sa-team/news/120730/Parnell_unlikely_to_be_in_any_trouble

Cricket South Africa (CSA) have won a major battle in their disciplinary enquiry against former chief executive officer Gerald Majola and are also making progress in their efforts to restructure their board to align with the recommendations of the Nicholson Committee.

Acting chief executive Jacques Faul revealed in Sandton on Friday that the chairman of the disciplinary enquiry, Advocate Johan Myburgh SC, had handed down an advisory award in favour of Cricket South Africa, finding sufficient reason for Majola to be fired.

Majola and his legal team have not accepted the advisory award, which is non-binding, and the case will now proceed to a full disciplinary hearing, where witnesses and cross-examination can now be included in the process.

In more good news for cricket, Faul also announced that he had withdrawn his resignation letter because those board members who were apparently unhappy with how he carried out his responsibilites now backed him.

“I’ve withdrawn my resignation because I now feel that I have the support of the board. I wasn’t sure before, but I’ve subsequently had numerous calls from board members stating that they back me fully,” Faul said.

A smaller board, with more independent representation and greater corporate skills were amongst the key recommendations made by Judge Chris Nicholson after his hearing into Majola and the bonus scandal, and CSA acting president Dr Willie Basson said this process was still firmly on track and now had the full backing of the board.

“It was a very severe Nicholson report, his findings had great implications and his recommendations were difficult to accept. But after today’s meeting, I can categorically state that there is a very strong resolve to complete the process as closely as possible to the judge’s recommendations,” Basson said.

“The reality is very simple, we had problems with our governance structure and it was at odds with how it is developing across the world. It’s all about smaller boards now, that are more skilled and have more of an independent presence. The board has accepted these proposals and made peace with them.”

The benefits of a smaller, more independent but better skilled board are that cricket should be run more efficiently, they will be better attuned to corporate South Africa and provincial presidents can then concentrate more on their own constituencies, without clouding issues of national importance with their own agendas.

CSA will then be divided into two bodies – a professional board and a members’ forum made up of representatives from all the provinces, associates and aligned bodies.

Basson said a nominations committee would be formed and will provide the current board with a list of people to sit on the new structure.

“The nominations committee will have independent members and will be appointed by the board to identify potential independent board members. Through advertisements and submissions by the public, they will sift through the candidates and then the final choice will be made by the members’ forum,” he said.

In the new structure, the members’ forum will meet perhaps three times a year and decide on broad policies for cricket in the country, while providing “checks and balances” to the board.

The smaller, independent board will meet monthly and be responsible for implementing those policies, the day-to-day operations of cricket and monetary issues.

Cricket South Africa may have been restored to reasonably good health, but like the nasty winter flu that just won’t go away, the bonus scandal is still causing all manner of coughs and splutters next door at the offices of the Gauteng Cricket Board.

While Gerald Majola reaped the whirlwind of his duplicated bonuses and has been blown away from the CSA offices, an icy wind is howling through the corridors of the Wanderers and its source is seemingly the same.

It was Gauteng cricket that first raised questions about Majola and his handling of the IPL and whether he was paid bonuses that were not in keeping with good governance, and the then-CSA CEO’s heavy-handed response was to remove the GCB board by way of the Langa Commission, using the lack of transformation in the province as an excuse.

A new board, headed by an interim administrator in former International Cricket Council president Ray Mali, was put in place in August 2010, with representation from each of the race groups involved in Gauteng cricket.

With the two-year term of that administration coming to an end in August, each of these groups is now seemingly jostling for position in what is becoming an ugly power struggle.

A group of Premier League clubs has accused Mali of either wanting to continue his stay or making decisions, such as extending acting CEO Cassim Docrat’s contract by a year, that will effect Gauteng cricket long after August.

Earlier this year, they attempted, unsuccessfully, to remove Mali and four other GCB directors, all of them black.

“When CSA placed Gauteng cricket under administration, there was never consensus, the clubs reluctantly agreed to what was meant to be an experimental structure. All sorts of things have been going on in the meantime and the clubs don’t feel they are effectively represented in Gauteng cricket anymore, because of this purely political act,” Keith Lister, who describes himself as a “volunteer in Gauteng cricket for 25 years” and is “assisting” the disenchanted Premier League clubs, told Mail & Guardian.

Lister says CSA are trying to run Gauteng cricket from across Corlett Drive.

“The clubs have rights and we won’t be bullied into being told what to do by CSA. They should be the servants of the provinces’ interests, but they want us to toe the line because of what they say is our history and because we brought the game into disrepute.

“Why do they think they have this power over us? Nowhere in the Langa Commission does it say in terms of Articles X, Y or Z that CSA has this power.

“And how did Gauteng cricket bring the game into disrepute? Who actually did?” Lister asks.

But both Mali and CSA acting CEO Jacques Faul have given assurances that the interim administration will end on August 31.

“My term ends on August 31, but this [attempt to oust him before that] affects the gains that have been achieved. There is a process, a formula, a way of doing things. Why has this happened after 21 months? Keith Lister was part of the process, they made submissions and this was the agreed-upon route, which must take its full course.

“I was not just imposed on the GCB, the structures agreed on my name which was put forward by [former GCB chairman] Mtutuzeli Nyoka,” Mali said.

Faul said there was no intention to extend the interim administration and he hoped that would bring an end to the bonus scandal.

“I am not aware that we are considering extending the period of administration and I am of the opinion that it will not be in the best interests of CSA or GCB to do that.

“We also note that no club objected to the administration for 21 months out of 24, and we are uncertain of the motive for doing so now. We do not see the matter, should it continue, being resolved within a month of the termination of administration and again question why certain individuals would want to do that at this very late stage.

“We can only hope that this is not a result of the division that was caused by the bonus scandal and that the GCB has become the battlefield for this very sad chapter of our cricket history. All indications are that the GCB will not be under administration after August 2012,” Faul said.

The new Gauteng cricket constitution is also set to be adopted at the AGM in August and could be the motive for the power struggle.

“Gauteng requires a new constitution and it is imperative to transform and restructure the administrative body. The board is committed to a new identity for Gauteng cricket that will reflect the different communities. We want to reshape the landscape of cricket in the province – there must be no domination of one group over another!” Mali said.

The chief stumbling block in the proposed new constitution is over voting rights: The old constitution gives Premier League clubs extra votes, while the proposal is to implement a system of one club, one vote, although Mali has indicated a willingness to compromise and have one team, one vote.

“The voting rights goes to the heart of the problem. The current board approved Premier League status for new clubs, which we objected to on cricketing and constitutional grounds. It increases the power of some clubs, while diluting the power of others,” Lister admits.

“Should a Sunday morning twenty20 club have the same power as a Premier League team? I understand the argument that the old traditionally white clubs are clinging to power, but I don’t think that’s so. There are responsible people taking care of the Premier League clubs and they support transformation in the Premier League.”

While the targets of the Lister-assisted clubs were all black, Mali says he does not believe the issue is a racial one.

“I won’t say it’s a racial issue. I would term it a power struggle,” he said.

The issue of power is clear when CSA acting president Willie Basson says things like: “Considering their history, they [Lister’s clubs] need to very seriously consider their positions and their actions from here onward. There are various options; CSA can withdraw or CSA can prolong the period of administration.” [Business Day, June 6]

The response of Daniel Phetla, the chairman of Alexandra Cricket Club, was “On the (Gauteng) board there have been murmurs that it could be extended. When people talk like that you start to wonder if we are moving towards a dictatorial situation; that’s a sign of Mugabeism.” [Business Day, June 22].

Lister has gone so far as to accuse CSA of wanting an Apartheid-style solution.

“CSA want three chambers of equal power based on colour. Dr Verwoerd would be so proud, he would say ‘I told you so’.

“That South Africans are not capable of solving their problems unless they’re in racial groupings is utter bullshit,” Lister said.

But is the love of the game in the province going to be enough for the people involved in Gauteng cricket to solve their complex problems?