Ken Borland

Cricket South Africa on Thursday officially parted ways with their chief executive Thabang Moroe, announcing that he has been fired with immediate effect for serious misconduct, but the size of his misdemeanours is only likely to be revealed in the coming months as the dismissed administrator’s legal team have already indicated they will fight his axing in court.

CSA’s brief statement on Thursday said the “decision was based on expert external legal opinion supported by the findings emanating from an independent forensic investigation” but they gave no details of what exactly Moroe had done wrong. And the CSA Board have already rebuffed requests for the forensic report to be made public, including from their own Members Council, which is scheduled to elect a new Board on September 5.

Many believe the report implicates the Board in many of the things Moroe has been punished for, a perception his legal team have supported.

At the time of his suspension, way back in December, Moroe had presided over a huge deterioration in CSA’s relationships with key stakeholders such as the players’ union, sponsors and media. He was also accused of excessive credit card spending and procurement irregularities.

The forensic investigators, Fundudzi Forensic Services, interviewed a range of stakeholders before submitting their report in May, since when CSA have supplied numerous different excuses for not finalising the matter more timeously.

Tellingly, Moroe did not avail himself of the opportunity to be interviewed by Fundudzi, a point CSA were quick to highlight in their statement on Thursday.

“Mr Thabang Moroe was offered sufficient opportunity to provide representations to the independent forensic auditors and to the Board regarding the allegations of misconduct, which opportunity he failed and/or refused to utilise,” the statement read.

Moroe’s legal team are likely to include this in any legal action they take, given that they also targeted the chairperson overseeing his disciplinary hearing, demanding that they be replaced by an independent figure.

As much as the CSA Board may now believe the Moroe matter is done and dusted, there are numerous parties who are determined to ensure the forensic report is made public, and the axed CEO will certainly be using it in his defence. The behaviour of the CSA Board will then be in the spotlight.

Whenever a governing body hands a coach a long-term contract it is an expression of faith in that person’s ability to succeed, whatever the vagaries of sport or that old chestnut that there are only two types of coaches – those that have been fired and those that are still going to be fired. Remembering of course that the longer a contract, the bigger the payout should it be prematurely terminated.

So to say SA Rugby have faith in new Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is an understatement, given that they have given him a six-year contract, the longest in any sport in the world, longer than Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho.

But their extraordinary decision has certainly had a positive effect judging by the bravery with which Erasmus and his team approached their first four assignments.

Given that he has such job security and knows his buddies in the SA Rugby boardroom want him to have the job, Erasmus was able to make some bold selection calls against Wales and England, and his courage certainly seemed to have rubbed off on the players, given the ambitious rugby they produced and the way they bounced back from big deficits to win the first two Tests against the English.

The fear of failure that characterised the Allister Coetzee years has seemingly gone and a young, inexperienced team showed signs of blossoming into something wonderful. Coetzee had good reason to believe the administrators were waiting for him to fail and it showed in his conservative selections and game plan.

Judging by his first month as coach, it seems the Springboks are in good hands with Erasmus.

The players certainly seem to have enjoyed his coaching and, most importantly, you had to give them 10/10 for character with the way one of the most inexperienced sides in Springbok history overcame a horror start at Ellis Park and another poor opening quarter in Bloemfontein.

Which is not to say everything is perfect in the Springbok camp ahead of the Rugby Championship starting in August. But given the number of players who are just starting out on their international careers, who knows whether what we saw against England is 50% or 80% of their potential.

Probably the area which requires the biggest improvement is the mental side of the game and their ability to adapt to conditions that don’t suit them. Although it was heartening to see the intensity and pace with which they played in the first two Tests, there are times – such as when Newlands is a sodden quagmire – when you have to play the percentages better.

Ellis Park and Bloemfontein – both on the highveld and with weather suiting a quick game – are obviously very much in the Springboks’ comfort zone. The indiscipline and basic errors of the Newlands display indicated a team that was just a bit freaked out by very different conditions.

Since the last World Cup, South Africa have won just three of their last 14 games away from home. The challenges of playing in Mendoza, Brisbane and Wellington lie ahead. Mendoza is the heartland of Argentinean rugby and they pump up the passion even more there, making it a hostile place for visiting teams. The Springboks have won just once in 12 attempts in Brisbane and they have not been able to beat the All Blacks in Wellington since 1998.

But given the honesty of the straightshooting Erasmus in dealing with the negative aspects of his first four games in charge, I’m sure he will not be shying away from the tough questions that need to be asked in order to sort out the Springboks’ issue with playing in foreign conditions.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20180630/282574493816989

Luke Donald was the star of the show and the leader after the second round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City on Friday as he fired a superb nine-under-par 63, the tournament’s best round since 2011.

Donald was two shots clear of overnight leader Ross Fisher on 10-under-par and his round was blemish-free and a brilliant display of precision golf.

Fisher was also two shots ahead of his nearest challengers after a battling two-under-par 70, with Frenchman Alexander Levy on six-under and Danny Willett on five-under-par after a 68.

Donald announced himself as ready to return to the top of world golf as the former world number one produced a dazzling round with nine birdies, six of them on the front nine which he has usually found harder to deal with on his seventh visit to the Gary Player Country Club.

“Obviously nine birdies around this place is a great round and something I was very pleased with. It’s been a while since I played such a solid round. I gave myself a lot of good opportunities today, I didn’t put myself into too much trouble. Obviously when the putter is warm, it’s always one of my best weapons in the bag, so it was nice to roll in a few today,” Donald said.

The 36-year-old – he turns 37 on Sunday – described himself as always feeling in control during his round and that was certainly not the impression Fisher, Marcel Siem or George Coetzee gave as the final three-ball were overtaken by the first man to win both the European and PGA tour moneylists in the same year.

The trio all made silly mistakes as the notorious Sun City rough punished their waywardness.

While Fisher held it together well enough to stay in touch with his fellow Englishman Donald, Siem was left six shots off the pace after a 72 and Coetzee was eight strokes back after a disappointing 74.

“It was a strange day, the total opposite from yesterday. It started really nicely, but all of us had problems on the golf course today. It was not like yesterday where we fed from each other. I felt like we were never going to finish, and on 16, we felt the whole tournament was over already. We played five hours, two minutes, just had a really long round and we didn’t play as well as we did yesterday.  Unfortunately the few chances we had on the back nine didn’t drop,” Siem lamented.

“It’s a tough golf course and I don’t feel like I played probably as solid as yesterday. I didn’t hit it as good off the tee. But I still felt like I played pretty solid. I hit one poor tee shot on 14 which cost me a six and had to take a penalty drop there. I got it to five‑under after 11, so I was hoping to kick on and reproduce 66 from yesterday or even a little bit better. But unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be, so I still shot under par, even with a couple of those loose shots coming in.

“Today it just seemed like every putt we over‑borrowed. I hit at least half-a-dozen, if not seven or eight putts, that I hit exactly where I wanted to hit it, and just unfortunately was over-reading the greens today,” Fisher said.

It was left to Frenchman Alexander Levy to act as the challenger to the English dominance as he posted a solid 70.

“It was a good 70, I’m happy because it’s not my best golf but I managed the golf course well. It’s always good to play 70 on this golf course, it’s very difficult and it’s hot,” Levy said.