Ken Borland

It may take a long time for the whole procession of winners to come up for their trophies and certificates, but they are like precious treasure for them,  and the fact that awards dinners usually focus on the club levels that are so crucial to any sport means I like them.

One of my favourites is the Gauteng Cricket Board awards banquet, which was held this week at the Wanderers Club, because, for me, it mirrors what I imagine transformed cricket in South Africa should look like.

This is a union that, a few years ago, was suffering from such internal strife and mistrust that the different clubs across the colour divides could barely sit in the same room together. And yet, there they all were, clubs from Soweto, Greenside, Lenasia, Riverlea, Jeppe, Azaadville, Thokoza and Florida, all enjoying a festive, celebratory evening together, all driven by MC Joey Rasdien’s wonderful mix of wicked humour and stern admonitions to keep focused on the prizegiving.

The current leadership of the GCB, from president Thabang Moroe, to the board, CEO Greg Fredericks and the staff, deserve credit for how they have dug Gauteng cricket out of their off-field hole.

Their professional teams, the Gauteng Strikers and the Highveld Lions, continue to win trophies on the field, and the Lions’ victory in the Momentum One-Day Cup means they have now won all the domestic trophies (four in total) in the four seasons that Geoff Toyana has been coach.

I would like to pay special tribute to Toyana (and senior players like Stephen Cook and Neil McKenzie) because it would have been easy for the Lions to find themselves in a hole on the playing field.

Toyana has managed to keep an often fractious dressing room – the outer veneer of a happy team is misleading because there are some difficult personalities that rub each other up in the changeroom – focused and winning, which is no mean feat and speaks volumes for his man-management.

The awful cloud of matchfixing has also hung heavily over the team and seeing a handful of his players being investigated for corruption has been like a kick in the solar plexus for Toyana.

National call-ups and SA A duties have also taken key players in and out of the team, but Toyana has handled this as well and the Lions have remained a force to be reckoned with.

In roughly the same time period Russell Domingo has taken the Proteas from the top two in all three formats to sixth in Tests, third in ODIs and fourth in T20s.

Steps have to be taken to arrest this slide. I certainly believe South Africa has the players to return to the heights of 2012, so the issue has to be related to the leadership and management of the side.

Cricket South Africa could do worse than to think seriously about elevating Toyana to the national coaching job. I believe he is one of those rare coaches able to both groom young talent – think of how Temba Bavuma, Aaron Phangiso, Eddie Leie, Hardus Viljoen, Chris Morris and Kagiso Rabada have all made it into the national squad – and also to get the best out of wise old experienced players such as Cook, who is batting better and better, Alviro Petersen and McKenzie before he retired.

A player like Dwaine Pretorius has also blossomed under Toyana and the all-rounder, named the most valuable domestic player of last season by the SA Cricketers’ Association, is going to be knocking on the door for national honours as well.

A promotion for Toyana would allow Gauteng cricket to reflect on great success at both the upper and lower levels of the game, and they are certainly going to continue pushing the Titans hard for the honour of being South Africa’s premier franchise.

Opponents of the current Gauteng Cricket Board executive committee were left aghast at the AGM on Monday night when nobody from their ranks spoke up against the interim body continuing to run the game in the province.

No election of office-bearers was held as, after hearing the reports of the CEO, Cassim Docrat, and the chief financial officer, Arno Fourie, the club representatives at the AGM failed to bring up any matters for general discussion.

Those clubs looking to overturn the running of cricket by the interim, three-chambered board set up by the Langa Commission had been expected to call for an election at that time.

“We were shocked. We had all these meetings before the AGM to strategize, but when the time came, nobody said anything and nothing happened,” one club representative told Business Day.

The current board, made up of representatives from the black, Indian/coloured and white chambers, will now continue to run Gauteng cricket at least until the end of January. The three chambers will now consult their affiliated clubs and, if they want to change their nominees to the board, that can be done at the next board meeting at the end of next month.

Fourie presented a gloomy financial report that detailed a R7.392 million deficit for Gauteng cricket over the last financial year, while Lions cricket, the professional franchise, made a loss of R1.94 million.

But Fourie said they expected a profit in the next financial year due to Bidvest paying R5.8 million for the naming rights to the Wanderers, more international matches in 2012/13, a once-off Cricket South Africa grant of R3 million and the Highveld Lions’ lucrative participation in the Champions League T20 competition.

FRESH storm clouds are set to gather around Gauteng cricket on Monday night when the Gauteng Cricket Board (GCB) holds its deferred annual general meeting at the Wanderers.

The GCB is being run by an interim board of directors set up by the Langa commission after Cricket South Africa (CSA) took over administration of the union two years ago, after the board sitting at the time became the first to question disgraced CEO Gerald Majola.

That interim board was meant to settle on a new constitution for Gauteng cricket but has failed to reach agreement with the clubs. With its two-year term now over, the future of the current board is uncertain.

It is expected that the board will ask for an extension of its term at the meeting on Monday night, but there is a strong groundswell among the clubs that the current administration should be called to book and replaced.

“The clubs want to vote and they want a new board. The current board are probably going to ask to continue for another six months in order to introduce the new constitution, but if they haven’t been able to do it in two years, why do they think they’ll be able to do it in six months? Besides, the new constitution should not be a private document that only the current board are privy to. We want to elect new representatives to work on the constitution,” a club chairman told Business Day at the weekend.

The legitimacy of the current board has also been called into question following the revelations in the Nicholson Commission of Inquiry that led to Majola being dismissed by CSA and the former GCB board being proven right.

There is a strong desire for self-determination among many Gauteng clubs, who feel they have had no say in the running of cricket in their province for the last two years.

The decision of the board to dismiss Alexandra Cricket Club chairman Dan Phetla, a vocal proponent of control to be returned to the clubs, as a director on Friday night makes it clear the incumbents from the Majola era will not go without a fight.

Thabang Moroe, a fellow director and the chairman of the Black African Cricket Clubs (BACC) grouping, threatened to get the Gauteng Sports Council (GSC) involved in the cricket administration if Phetla was not removed.

The GSC are expected to be present at Monday night’s AGM, with certain clubs accusing the BACC of using them to intimidate those looking to return control of Gauteng cricket to the clubs.

http://www.bdlive.co.za/sport/cricket/2012/12/10/gauteng-cricket-faces-constitution-debacle

Gauteng cricket’s current impasse over their new constitution is more about the entrenchment of racially-segregated chambers on the board than voting rights, according to the clubs who voted against the new Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI) last week.

The main sticking point would seem to be a clause in the MOI that extends the transitional period recommended by the Langa Commission for six more years. This means the current three-chambered composition of the board – black, white and coloured/Indian clubs all voting for their own representatives – will continue.

“We’re not happy with the six-year transitional period because it means that the board will continue to be segregated into groups which is not constitutional. We’re not against the MOI as a whole, there were some good things to come out of the Langa Commission, but the document is unconstitutional at the moment. The three chambers just creates more division, but, in the spirit of compromise, we can go with the Langa recommendations for another two years,” Roger Burne, the chairman of Pirates Cricket Club, told Business Day.

Dan Phetla, the chairman of the Alexandra Cricket Club, said the six-year transitional period would just allow the current beneficiaries of the system even more opportunity to feather their own nests.

“We have an issue with it because a club like Alex has been around a long time [since 1995/96] but there is still a lot of work needed in our area. So six years is the time frame, but what are the measurable? Those wanting us to vote for the MOI are not including the other black clubs like us and they say clubs like Katlehong and Orange Farm are inconsequential. They’re not saying what must be achieved in those six years and extending the transitional period just gives more opportunity for more unaccountability,” Phetla said.

The initial challenge in getting the new MOI approved seemed to be getting the old “white” clubs and the northern black clubs, led by Alex, to agree to a new voting structure of one club, one vote, but they seem to be relaxed about this issue.

“One club, one vote is a sticking point and we put one team, one vote on the table, but it wasn’t well received. But I seriously believe we can sort that out in the next week-and-a-half,” Burne said.

“The voting structure is easily dealt with, one club, one vote is no problem,” Phetla said.

What is more chilling is that there seems to be a huge rift and power struggle between the black clubs in Gauteng, fuelled by a personality clash between Phetla and Soweto Cricket Club chairman Gordon Templeton.

While Templeton has belittled the legitimacy of Phetla as a black cricket administrator, the Alex leader has accused Soweto of channeling transformation resources to themselves and their allies at the expense of development clubs in the north.

The Concerned Cricket Fraternity, mostly comprising Soweto and their allies, had a major hand in the Gauteng Cricket Board (GCB) suspending Phetla and his Alex executive; a decision they are now fighting through Cricket South Africa’s dispute resolution process.

In the meantime, Templeton says the GCB constitution must continue with its tricameral approach giving black clubs the chance of voicing their concerns at board level.

“It’s necessary based on what happened previously. Since the Langa Commission, for the first time black clubs are speaking for themselves and each constituency has a voice on the board, which didn’t happen before. African clubs were the most disadvantaged and this is correcting the wrongs of the past.

“Based on previous experience, we need the separate chambers because, after 18 years of democracy, are we now equal in South Africa? The six-year transitional period is already a compromise because we proposed nine years. We’re dealing with correcting 300 years of wrongs and ill-gotten privileges, so how long is a piece of string?” Templeton said.

“Five million people live in Soweto, but there are only three cricket ovals, one of which, at the UJ Soweto campus, is not accessible to the general public. When will Soweto U13 to U19 teams compete with the other established schools in Gauteng and our kids don’t have to leave Soweto to make it? When these measurable and deliverables are in place, then we can scrap the transitional arrangement.”

But Phetla says the system is a farce because what happens when a mixed club like UJ –considered to be white and previously advantaged – elects an Indian chairman? Does he form part of the white chamber or the Indian chamber?

“It’s discrimination to say the black clubs must vote for black administrators, the whites most vote for whites and the Indians for Indians. It’s against the law and everyone should be able to vote for everyone. The MOI is a sound document but it’s flawed in that respect,” Phetla said.

While the failure to pass the new constitution was a blow to Gauteng cricket’s hopes of ending CSA’s partial administration of the board, CEO Cassim Docrat says it comes down to the traditionally white clubs using their loaded votes – they have nine votes each compared to just the one vote of the non-Premier League clubs – to stymie progress.

“We had a very good majority in favour of the new constitution, but seven clubs voted against it and they had the loaded vote. It’s frustrating that more than two-thirds are in favour and this objection comes to the table now at the end of the process,” Docrat said.

But both Burne and Phetla are adamant that they have expressed their concern over the MOI to Gauteng cricket for months.

Fortunately, efforts to mediate a compromise from both sides are on-going as those who voted against the MOI look to restore control of Gauteng cricket to the clubs.