Ken Borland

Cricket South Africa president Chris Nenzani on Tuesday night denied that the organisation was afflicted by terrible chaos but admitted that the delays in holding former CEO Thabang Moroe’s disciplinary hearing were not good for the game, although unavoidable to ensure correct procedures were followed.

Moroe was suspended in December pending the outcome of a forensic investigation, and last week returned to the CSA offices, purportedly to ‘return to work’ as he believed his suspension expired after six months. This happened after the South African Cricketers’ Association, the players’ union, warned that the CSA Board lacked the will to finalise Moroe’s case.

CSA’s former Head of Sales and Sponsor Relations Clive Eksteen, who was suspended by Moroe in October and fired by CSA at the weekend, on Tuesday announced that he would be taking the organisation to the CCMA for unfair dismissal.

“I don’t think Cricket South Africa is in chaos although there are challenges we have to go through. We have to make sure we deal with certain in-house issues so they don’t impact on the game. We hoped by now that we would have been able to announce the outcome of the investigation into Mr Moroe, but unfortunately not and there is great disappointment over that at Board and Members Council level. It is not desirable that it take so long and we will take the necessary action to ensure CSA are protected.

“But I ask for understanding because we must complete a forensic investigation that meets the highest levels of governance and that is time-consuming. We have been promised by the investigators that the first part of the report will be ready by Friday and the Members Council will then decide the way forward. But set processes need to be followed so we don’t fall foul of the law. I can assure that the terms of reference of the investigation are as exhaustive as possible, but it is not common practice to make them public,” Nenzani said in a virtual press conference on Tuesday evening.

While Nenzani did his best during an hour-long conference to depict all CSA’s cups as being half-full, the organisation’s president since 2013 admitted that he should not have extended his record tenure by another term.

“One of the things I would have done differently in hindsight is that I would not have agreed to serving as president for an additional year. I regret that. But when you are an elected official you have an obligation to serve and so when the Members Council asks you to continue then you subject yourself to that. But the term of the president will come to an end in the AGM in September,” Nenzani said.

The Bisho schoolteacher refused to deny, however, that he has his eye on the position of International Cricket Council Chairman.

“As far as the position of chairman goes, the ICC has issued a moratorium on people expressing a desire for that post. They haven’t even opened the process of nominations yet, so it would be premature to make any declarations of being available or not being available,” Nenzani said.

Cricket South Africa’s midnight statement saying former CEO Thabang Moroe is still suspended has only heightened the terrible uncertainty around the game in this country, the chief executive of the players’ union said on Friday.

Moroe was suspended on December 6 pending a forensic investigation into his management practices but arrived at the CSA offices in Melrose Estate on Thursday morning, ostensibly seeking to ‘return to work’. His lawyer, Michael Bill, said his suspension had lapsed after six months.

But the CSA Board issued a statement more than 15 hours later saying the “letter of suspension issued to the Chief Executive Officer explicitly stated that he was suspended until the conclusion of the independent forensic investigation” and that there was no predetermined timeframe attached to his suspension. The Board added that the forensic investigators had indicated their report was “imminent” and “there will be more clarity and certainty provided before the end of June.”

The South African Cricketers’ Association issued a warning earlier this week that CSA’s failure to make progress on Moroe’s disciplinary hearing would seriously erode the small gains in confidence in the organisation that have been painstakingly acquired by acting CEO Faul and director of cricket Graeme Smith, and Andrew Breetzke, the players’ union CEO, said on Friday that CSA’s statement did not alleviate the level of suspicion aimed at the Board.

“We’ve taken note of their intention to complete the disciplinary process with haste and that the forensic report is imminent, but there’s no real comfort that it will all be resolved soon. Thabang Moroe has not even been charged yet and history shows their disciplinary hearings have taken six months to complete from the date the person was charged.

“Given the crisis cricket is facing, we need certainty and CSA are just not creating that at the leadership level. It’s critical that President Nenzani answer the important questions because never before have there been so many crises all at once, and major sponsors Willowton, Standard Bank and Momentum have all said they are very concerned over governance,” Breetzke told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

Breetzke said it was also vital that there was transparency over the forensic investigation’s terms of reference, to allay fears that they were only examining the tip of the iceberg in terms of CSA’s financials.

“It’s a real concern that we don’t understand the terms of reference of the investigation because a lot hangs on that. Nenzani said the whole process would take six months and there is clearly evidence because Moroe was suspended based on the reports of the Social and Ethics and Risk and Audit committees. You would have thought the CSA Board would have dealt with this as a matter of urgency and not in such dribs and drabs.

“This is a systemic issue that runs really deep in CSA, but they are the custodians of cricket, not the owners, so all lovers and stakeholders of the game have a right to know. In terms of the court papers SACA have previously filed, there are lots of incorrect figures and significant negligence regarding the second MSL, plus journalists’ accreditation being revoked, so CSA don’t really have to look much further than that,” Breetzke said.

Legendary South African paceman Dale Steyn said on Tuesday that if bowlers were banned from using saliva and sweat on the field of play then it would just be another blow to bowlers in their attempts to maintain the balance of the game as bats just get bigger and better in unrelenting fashion.

As cricket prepares to return to action, the International Cricket Council is devising medical regulations to ensure it is safe to play in this age of Covid-19. Their own cricket committee recommended that saliva be banned from being used on the ball, while the safety of using sweat to shine the ball is not certain.

“It’s just a habit using saliva and I use it more than sweat because as a child that’s what I saw on TV; it’s like deciding what guard to take, I guess I just saw bowlers licking their lips and fingers and then putting it on the ball. But if we’re only allowed to use sweat then it’s just another stupid rule taking away from the bowlers. It would be good to be playing back in the mid-2000s with the juicy mints they had back then!

“The thing with sweat is that you don’t really want it to touch the ball if you’re trying to get reverse swing, the key is to keep the ball dry. But I guess in the greater scheme of things it’s not a big deal whether you use sweat or saliva, except in terms of trying to break habits. If neither are allowed then they really should give the umpire a can of polish that the bowlers can use. Why not? And then I’ll start a business selling the polish!” Steyn told The Citizen on Tuesday.

Apart from safety measures on the field and the players being isolated inside a bio-bubble, there will also be no spectators allowed when cricket resumes. But Steyn said crowd support was not really one of the major ingredients for his own tremendous success.

“I’d probably bowl better with no crowd because I grew up in Phalaborwa and there were no crowds watching me play cricket there! Also when someone like AB de Villiers has just smoked you for 24 runs in an over, you can go down to fine leg and not have the spectators abusing you, you can just drink your water and regather your thoughts.

“But cricket is made for people and entertainment, so it would be sad not to have crowds, but we just have to roll with it. In the IPL, whether you’re playing in front of 70 000 or nobody, you’re still going to have 200 people in the hotel reception. I guess I’ll just wave and give a peace sign from a hundred metres away. It just boils down to personal responsibility, not shaking hands and not getting in others’ personal space,” Steyn said.

Shaun Pollock, another South African fast bowling great, told the Following On cricket podcast recently that if players are isolated and tested before going into a bio-bubble then it should not matter what they shine the ball with.

New Central Gauteng Lions president Anne Vilas does not see herself as being a new broom sweeping clean but what she will bring to her role is business acumen and a great passion for the game of cricket.

Vilas is certainly not a new face around the Wanderers – she has been on the Lions board for nine years, was the vice-president to predecessor Jack Madiseng and is highly-regarded as an administrator.

In fact, she says she is happy to build on the legacy Madiseng created during his tenure from September 2016.

“In revealing my goals I’m really cognisant of my board and these are goals that we share together. A lot of them are what Jack has done in his term, sticking to the pillars he created for the Central Gauteng Lions,” Vilas told Saturday Citizen.

“Transformation is always the number one priority for all of us at the Lions, particularly right now with what’s happening in the world. We need to revive and grow the game in the townships, that’s very important. We also want to grow women’s cricket, which is going to be tough because there are not enough facilities even for men’s clubs. But we want to ensure that the women at least get equal opportunity.

“The financial stability of the union and the clubs, who I would like to see not being so reliant on the CGL, is also very important, and we need to increase the amount of cricket being played at schools and at age-group level, it’s vitally important to play as much cricket as we can. The upkeep of the Wanderers is another pillar, getting the most out of it as a multi-purpose stadium,” Vilas said.

Growing up in a household with a sports-mad father and two brothers, and then having three sons of her own, there was not much chance Vilas was going to be cooking in the kitchen while there was so much sporting action going on around her. Her whole life has been spent in male-dominated pursuits which is why she is so comfortable being just the second female president of a cricket union after Zola Thamae in the Free State.

“I played garden cricket with my brothers and my dad, Herby Prout, was a keen sportsman at club level, as well as working in the sports industry. I had two brothers and then three sons, so there’s been a massive amount of cricket watched at the Wanderers over the years. I had seen great times watching my dad and brothers – the youngest, Robert, was the wicketkeeper for Mark Rushmere’s 1983 SA Schools side [which also included Dave Rundle, Daryll Cullinan, Dave Callaghan and Meyrick Pringle] – and I wanted my boys to play club sport as well and make those friendships.

“And I’ve worked in a male-dominated sports industry all my life, so it is not new to me. I don’t want to be in the position I am because of what I am, but because of who I am. But if being president is important to women in general, if I can make a difference to future women wanting to get involved in cricket, then that’s good,” Vilas said.

For Vilas, her journey in cricket started at club level and she believes it is time the game went back to its roots and made sure they were strong.

“Every male member of my family went to King Edward VII School and my boys played at Old Eds. I played hockey there and was a sponsor through our sports goods business, but then one of my friends at the club suggested I make myself available for the Lions board, they would put my name forward. That’s how I got into cricket administration.

“Those friendships I spoke about from the old days of club sport, we’ve lost those. Cricket used to be about family and kids coming to watch, but the sport is not really growing now, it’s static. It comes back to the lack of facilities, nobody is building any more cricket fields. So we have a limited amount of people playing and these days kids want instant success so if they don’t make the A or B team then they go and play something else. People are no longer playing just for the love of the game,” Vilas said.

The Covid-19 pandemic has, of course, been an arrant disaster for cricket but Vilas is well-placed both as a businesswoman and as the mother of Dane, the internationally-acclaimed former Proteas wicketkeeper/batsman who now plays for Lancashire, to come up with solutions.

“I’ve seen through Dane’s experiences in England how the counties make money and through my cricket contacts in England, Australia and New Zealand, I have my finger on what happens around the world. From a purely business point of view, Covid will have a massive effect. In our own industry, schools and clubs weren’t able to finish the last season so we’re going to be selling them less equipment for next season.

“The whole Lockdown will have a knock-on effect and sponsors will be badly affected as well,” Vilas, whose company imports and distributes such big brands as Gunn and Moore and Ping, said.