Ken Borland

It is a sign of the prudent financial belt-tightening that Cricket South Africa have been doing that the official press conference to introduce Enoch Nkwe as the new director of cricket on Friday was followed by food packs given to the media.

Five years ago, there would have been catered food on hand, but it was a jolly good food pack – potato chips, a chocolate bar, packet of biltong, sandwiches and wraps – and another sign that the new CSA administration are focusing on the basics of putting the game first and not on lavish displays that are more about camouflage than anything else.

The other sign that CSA are heading in the right direction was that Nkwe and CEO Pholetsi Moseki, as well as Sipho Rihlamvu, the acting head of communications and media and the program director, were all in place and ready to go at 10.59am, the conference starting as advertised at 11am sharp. The blend of in-person attendance and virtual participants also worked seamlessly.

These are the sort of small things that speak to an organisation’s culture and professionalism and CSA have lately been consistently getting them right.

Moseki made the point that “cricket is in good hands” and that certainly is the impression at the moment. The coming months will of course pose incredible challenges that are mostly due to the state of the country as a whole, especially the economy.

While Nkwe acknowledged the importance of the commercial side of cricket, his individual strengths are more directed towards the strategic side of the game itself and building structures and pipelines.

He succeeds Graeme Smith, such a major figure in world cricket, and someone who was more involved with international deal-making and making sure the Proteas remain in the top echelon of teams as far as the all-powerful broadcasters are concerned.

Nkwe will be more involved in domestic affairs, in the grassroots that are so desperately in need of revitalisation. He will be a different sort of director of cricket, but is certainly eminently qualified and skilled to be in that job.

The more financial side of running South African cricket will be handled in the boardroom, where there is now also ample ability.

In so many ways, this is a new era for South African cricket. Out of the horrors and scorched earth tactics of the last few years, have come new shoots of green and gold hope.

The last time there was a press conference at CSA’s Melrose Estate offices (which also started dead on time), it was to announce their partnership with Roc Nation that will bring a new emphasis on fans and their in-stadium experience, as well as the digital world that is now so important. This is also vital in this new age.

The Proteas are obviously CSA’s showpiece product and how they perform will be used to measure the efficiency of the organisation.

Even with a new leadership dynamic in place, head coach Mark Boucher now reporting to Nkwe, the initial signs are positive. There have even been reports of a new, more cordial relationship between the team and the CSA Board.

For the players to successfully ply their trade against the best in the world, they need stability and assurance. There needs to be clarity and communication between them and their management and their administrators.

Boucher is famous for being a straight-talker and anyone who has spoken to Nkwe will know that he is a great communicator.

It is heartening to hear that even the Board are no longer playing Broken Telephone or speaking with forked tongues.

Trawling social media (which always leaves one feeling a bit dirty), one would think Cricket South Africa’s newly-appointed director of cricket, Enoch Nkwe, is filled with the sort of vengeful wrath of a spouse whose partner has committed adultery.

South Africans, it seems, love the drama of confrontation and aggression, especially if we can throw in an element of racial bias. No wonder we are such a sadly divided nation.

Aside from the delicious irony of Nkwe having gone from being Mark Boucher’s assistant coach to effectively his boss in the space of less than a year, it is highly unlikely that the new director of cricket is going to come in and destabilise the national team – especially since they are clearly heading in the right direction – by firing the coach.

And with CSA now playing it by the book in terms of corporate governance, any perceived enmity between the two has not only been grossly overstated but would also not be grounds for dismissing Boucher.

While admittedly it was a difficult marriage between the two when Boucher became head coach in December 2019, Nkwe being ‘demoted’ from interim team director to his assistant, the new director of cricket told me personally a couple of months back that he had no issues with Boucher personally.

His much-publicised resignation and his eventual decision not to testify at Boucher’s disciplinary hearing were never about the man himself. The reason why their work relationship never clicked is because, at heart, they are both head coaches.

South Africa have often got it wrong when it comes to their assistant coaches for the national team. Being the Proteas assistant coach is not like being the head coach of a franchise, the responsibilities are totally different. It is why someone like Malibongwe Maketa is much better off being the head coach of the SA A team than he would be in some understudy role with the Proteas.

It is a systemic error and Nkwe is exactly the sort of clear thinker to put it right as director of cricket.

At CSA’s AGM last October, the grim financial picture of the organisation was shown, with a nett loss of R221 million in 2020/21. This was largely due to broadcast revenue plummeting and there was an acknowledgement that to fix the situation, the Proteas had to be a drawcard, strong enough for the Big Three to want to play against regularly.

Between Boucher and the previous director of cricket, Graeme Smith, that vital reputation overseas has been restored. The immense respect Smith is held in internationally, especially in India, was crucial in getting those ‘sugar daddies’ into bed.

Nkwe will be a different sort of director of cricket. Apart from being an excellent coach, the 39-year-old is passionate about developing structures for the game, from grassroots all the way to where the sponsors want to pay their big money.

Nkwe’s appointment is an investment in the game at all levels and just reward for someone who has maintained his dignity despite the ignominy of his treatment by the previous CSA Board.

But then Boucher has also been treated disgracefully and I like to believe that there will a professional relationship between the two and a respect for their different roles.

Boucher may well continue to be the public face of our cricket as he steers the national team, but Nkwe has a vital role to play in ensuring the pipeline, everything that feeds into the Proteas, is operating smoothly and efficiently.

Together, they could actually form quite a formidable team. Nkwe is one of the leading cricket brains in the country and his input into the national team and all levels below it can only be beneficial.

With the disciplinary hearing just a week away, Cricket South Africa’s legal team may have to mull a completely different strategy to try and get rid of Proteas head coach Mark Boucher following Paul Adams’ decision to not testify against his erstwhile team-mate and the likelihood that former national team assistant coach Enoch Nkwe is also not going to participate.

Adams issued a statement at the weekend in which he said he was not willing to be cross-examined over the allegations of racism he made at the Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings, which have been a central pillar of CSA’s case against Boucher.

CSA have also charged Boucher over his treatment of Nkwe, who resigned from his post in August last year, using the reasons he gave to the board as ammunition. But informed sources say Nkwe is not willing to present evidence, believing the disciplinary hearing is a matter between CSA and the head coach.

Boucher is facing charges of gross misconduct, with CSA seeking his dismissal, and, in terms of labour law, he has the right to have any witnesses against him cross-examined. If neither Adams nor Nkwe are there, his lawyers are bound to insist their statements cannot be included in the hearing.

Even though his accusers’ case would now seem to have gone to pot in a dirty pickle-jar bong, Boucher’s legal team say nothing has changed from their point of view.

“Mark Boucher said up front that all he was interested in was clearing his name, which has been tarnished,” Mohammed Chavoos told The Citizen on Monday.

“He welcomed the opportunity to do that at the hearing and that still remains the case. Our position has never changed.

“It’s up to CSA to deal with their witnesses, they were the ones who embarked on this process. All we want to do is exonerate Mark.

“It’s why labour law is there, the principle of letting the other side be heard, that’s what’s important. Mark has welcomed the chance to clear his name of these allegations,” Chavoos said.

In his statement at the weekend, Adams said he never intended to single out Boucher in the SJN hearings, where he revealed the existence of the “Brown Shit” fines meeting song, but the former Proteas spinner did say the wicketkeeper/batsman “should come and say sorry, if that’s enough” and also targeted Boucher’s appointment as Titans coach in 2016.

“We want to put South African cricket first and take the Proteas back to number one. In my view, Mark Boucher is the best coach for South Africa, that’s where he belongs,” Chavoos added.

Boucher’s disciplinary hearing on charges of racism is scheduled for May 16-20, with senior counsel Terry Motau presiding.

The SJN report has already been partially discredited by former director of cricket Graeme Smith winning his arbitration hearing, with costs, against CSA.

An independent arbitration panel, while criticising the process as being far from perfect, has found Cricket South Africa’s now former director of cricket Graeme Smith was not guilty of any unfair racial discrimination in his appointment of Mark Boucher as Proteas coach ahead of Enoch Nkwe.

CSA, acting on the “tentative” findings of their Social Justice and Nation-Building Report, alleged that Smith had shown racial bias against Nkwe, who was the interim coach of the Proteas when the former national captain took over as director of cricket in December 2019.

But the arbitrators, advocates Ngwako Maenetje SC and Michael Bishop, cleared Smith of any racism and instructed CSA to pay his costs for the entire arbitration.

Smith explained his rationale for choosing Boucher in the hearing, starting with his impression of the Proteas team under Nkwe and captain Faf du Plessis on their disastrous tour of India in 2019, for which he was one of the TV commentators.

Smith described the Proteas as being “rudderless”, their performance was “way off par” and there was “quite a lot of onfield infighting between the players”. He told the arbitrators that his view on the coaching situation might have been different if the Proteas were a more experienced team with a captain that was going to be around for the next 10 years.

“I felt that I needed a character that could handle … an extremely high pressurised position, you are at the cold [sic] face of the world media, the … crowds. … I felt the team at the time needed someone that had extensive … experience in dealing with conditions, with the pressures that come with the international game. I knew that this team was going to lose extensively up front, it was going to take time to build it,” Smith told the hearing.

The arbitrators found that Smith made it clear to CSA that Boucher would be his appointment as the new coach, there was no objection from CSA and no suggestion from them that this was unfair to Nkwe. The then chairman of the board, Chris Nenzani, told Smith that he had the authority to appoint coaches and CSA never insisted on proper processes.

There was also a time factor because Smith could only make the appointments on December 11, 2019 after he was appointed director of cricket, and the Test series against England began on December 26, with the Proteas needing to assemble 8-10 days before that.

The arbitrators found that the CSA directive was for long-term appointments, not interim ones, and that it was their “inaction and delays that put Smith under pressure”.

CSA’s assertion that Boucher should never have been appointed national coach because he does not have a Level 4 coaching certificate, while Nkwe does, was left standing nude in front of the arbitrators when it was pointed out that CSA were happy to appoint both Gary Kirsten and Ottis Gibson as Proteas head coach when neither of them had a Level 4 qualification.