Ken Borland

Ex South African Airways CEO and former Vodacom executive Vuyani Jarana has reportedly turned down an offer to be Cricket South Africa’s new chief executive.

Interviews for the permanent chief executive post, that is currently temporarily filled by Pholetsi Moseki, were held two months ago, and it is believed CSA settled on Jarana, a high-powered candidate who has a track record of turning organisations around, as their preferred candidate.

But Jarana has apparently since declined CSA’s offer, sources close to the CSA Board have told The Citizen. The reasons for his withdrawal from contention are not known, but there has been speculation that someone with such a distinguished record in the private sector comes with a price tag that the financially-constrained organisation would not be able to meet.

There has been no official comment from CSA, but Andisa Ntsubane, chairman of the board’s HR committee, told The Citizen on Tuesday that the “search process is still ongoing to find the most ideal candidate to take CSA forward”.

With a new board in place since June and some stability returning to the running of the sport in this country, the appointment of a full-time CEO is one of the last pieces of the puzzle needing to be put in place.

But this delay means CSA will scramble into the new year still searching for their operational leader. The Citizen’s sources have indicated that CSA will restart the whole process of appointing a permanent CEO.

Moseki is well-liked within CSA circles and has done a fine job behind the scenes. But it is believed the Board are trying to find a ‘bigger’ name, a strong character and leader, a captain of industry who will stand up to the directors.

Given how Jarana was willing to lock horns with both government and his own board in trying to turn SAA around before his resignation in May 2019, it is not surprising CSA were going to approach the 51-year-old.

So the mighty Indian team will indeed be gracing our fields for five weeks of what should not only be intense cricket for the Proteas but a timely financial boost that will help the constrained Cricket South Africa administrators keep the candle wicks burning.

While one hopes the Proteas are able to make it a hotly contested series, there is no doubt that in terms of global boardroom politics, CSA are in a much weaker position than the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Of course South African cricket are eternally grateful for India agreeing to honour their commitment to tour when it looked likely that the Omicron variant of Covid would snuff out the tour.

But hopefully that gratitude does not express itself in timidity which allows the BCCI to bully or ride roughshod over South African cricket.

India have been calling the tune in world cricket for a while now, deservedly so when one considers they bring the most money into the game, but there will come a time when CSA have to stand up for their rights.

India are so used to everyone just kowtowing to them that there are occasions when they take a chance and push the boundaries of fair play.

One such occasion occurred this week in Bloemfontein, where their A team, to whom we are also extremely grateful for completing their series against SA A, displayed some incredibly frustrating time-wasting techniques and skullduggery.

As soon as the SA A team, trailing by just eight runs on first innings, made a solid start to their second innings, reaching 89/1 at tea on the third day, India began to ensure much time was taken out of the game.

In the two-and-a-half hour session after tea, they bowled just 26 overs as their bowlers crawled through their deliveries. Field settings were regularly tampered with and then returned to what they were, and every couple of overs, one of the Indian players would go to ground roaring and writhing in agony. The physiotherapist spent so much time on the field he should have been in the starting line-up.

The responsibility in those circumstances lies with the umpires and match referee to ensure the game is played in the right spirit, and there are laws, penalty runs and fines at their disposal to help them do it.

But this is India, who are doing South African cricket a massive favour remember, so there was a decided reluctance to ruffle any feathers.

The Test series against India is likely to have South African umpires due to the problems of travelling in these times of Covid, and one hopes the International Cricket Council devolve enough power to those officials so that they are seen to be representing the ICC and not CSA.

Otherwise they may not feel empowered enough to make tough calls against India should the need arise.

Hopefully we will be spared any controversy though, and will just be able to enjoy the fine cricket we know both teams are capable of producing. Given the aggressive fast bowlers South Africa have at their disposal, and India’s ability to fight fire with fire, there will certainly be some feisty action.

Which is fine, as long as that mysterious, difficult to quantify, line between competitiveness and unsporting behaviour is not crossed.

But anyone who watches this intriguing series will also be expecting two very passionate teams to sometimes get very close to that line.

I say bring it on!

The measurements of the St George’s Park ground are perhaps conducive to spectacular run-scoring, but the bowling-friendly nature of the pitch has raised concerns that Cricket South Africa’s imminent announcement that the entire Mzansi Super League will be played in a bio-bubble in Gqeberha may be misguided.

CSA are set to announce that both remaining domestic white-ball competitions this summer – the Momentum One-Day Cup and the MSL T20 competition – will be played in bubbles, which are on course to be a staple part of the South African game for a while yet.

In fact, the International Cricket Council have apparently decided that all international cricket for the next two years will be held in bio-bubbles.

The MSL is set to be played between February 7-28. In the two four-day matches played at St George’s Park this summer, scores of 170, 54, 96, 173, 366 and 79 have been recorded. If conditions stay the same, batting is not going to be easy, which many fans believe will detract from what is meant to be the T20 showpiece of the season.

Batsmen and spinners are going to be happier to hear that the 50-over Momentum One-Day Cup will be staged in two bubbles, one in Durban and the other in Potchefstroom.

Given how spin-friendly Kingsmead has been in recent years, and how flat the Potchefstroom pitch generally is, the pacemen are going to be disappointed.

The Momentum One-Day Cup is set to start in early January and will be completed before the MSL. Last season’s competition ended in disappointment in Potchefstroom as the Imperial Lions and Dolphins were forced to share the title after rain washed out play after 55.2 overs on the reserve day.

Meanwhile, the final round of fixtures in the first stage of the 4-Day Franchise Series, due to start on December 19, is set to be postponed because several teams have large numbers of Covid-positive cases within their squads.

The four-day competition is due to resume on March 4.

Cricket South Africa’s Board issued a directive on Tuesday morning that all Proteas players must ‘take the knee’ in support of the Black Lives Matter initiative against racism before their T20 World Cup match against the West Indies in Dubai, a move that was later confirmed as the reason for key batsman Quinton de Kock withdrawing from the match.

De Kock was a notable omission from the starting XI for what team management called “personal reasons”. The wicketkeeper/batsman has previously expressed his struggles with bubble life, but the timing of his withdrawal inevitably cause immense speculation and CSA issued a statement during the West Indies innings confirming that the former captain had made a “personal decision … not to take the knee”.

The statement said the Board will await a report from team management before deciding on “the next steps”.

The Proteas were fielding first and all the players on the field and the support staff on the side appeared to take the knee with their right fists raised.

CSA Board chairman Lawson Naidoo said he believed the Proteas needed to have a unified response to BLM, rather than the previous situation where some players were standing, others kneeling, some had fists raised and others didn’t.

“A commitment to overcoming racism is the glue that should unite, bind and strengthen us. Race should not be manipulated to amplify our weaknesses. Diversity can and should find expression in many facets of our daily lives, but not when it comes to taking a stand against racism.

“South Africans were recently joined by people across the world in celebrating the 90th birthday of our revered Archbishop Desmond Tutu. What better tribute from the Proteas to an icon of the struggle for freedom in South Africa than to demonstrate we are working to fulfil his vision of a united South Africa,” Naidoo said.

Former long-serving Proteas Mohammed Moosajee urged the board to implement a unified response to BLM by the Proteas when he testified before the Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings last week.