Ken Borland

Siya Kolisi’s contract with Western Province was only due to expire in October, but so desperate was the Springbok captain to join his management company in their new venture at the Sharks that he paid his own early-release fee.

Kolisi’s management company is the U.S.-based Roc Nation and they are one of the partners in MVM Holdings, the new equity partners that have bought a 51% stake in the Sharks and their sizeable investment will see the franchise now being marketed on a global stage. As one of the most recognisable faces in the sport, the World Cup winning captain is obviously a key role-player in those plans.

But while the Sharks are dreaming big, it is ironic that MVM Holdings initially approached Western Province to become equity partners, but they were snubbed. This by a union that is facing a real threat of bankruptcy. Having been vocal in his support of the equity deal, it was always likely that Kolisi would leave the Cape, even though getting an early release from his contract may have cost him as much as a million rand.

“It’s a huge honour and privilege for me to be part of the Sharks, one chapter has closed and I’m looking forward to a new chapter. Western Province offered me an extension but I did not accept it. I decided to leave early so therefore I had to take care of the transfer fee for myself. After 11 years in Cape Town it felt like a really difficult thing, but it felt like the right time for me.

“After the 2015 World Cup, I was going through a really tough time and I wanted to go overseas, but my work off the field is very important to me and it’s rugby that opens up a lot of those opportunities, but then you have to play well on the field. So I decided to stay in South Africa for as long as I can, and I said if I leave Cape Town then Durban is the only place I would go,” Kolisi said.

Kolisi has also been impressed with the Sharks’ style of play.

“The Sharks team is really strong, they have a good kicking game, they’re disciplined and they have the boot of Curwin Bosch. But I love their style when they do move the ball around, they have a strong attacking game. I have to start producing again on the field, and I believe Kings Park has the environment to get me there.”

Kolisi’s family has not yet joined him in Durban because “the kids have just started a new school, the family will come up at the end of the year”.

A new year brings new challenges for the Interim Board of Cricket South Africa with arrangements for the Australian Test tour needing to be made and a new structure for the organisation now being considered by the directors.

Judge Zak Yacoob, the chairman of the Interim Board, said on Thursday that he was confident the incoming tour by Australia would take place, although he did let slip that it is now expected to take place only in April.

“The Australia tour will go ahead at this stage. A week ago I had a chat with the head of Cricket Australia and we agreed that we would make sure the facilities are as good as necessary. Not that we did anything wrong when England were here because none of their players were affected by Covid. But our learnings on this virus changes all the time, it is unpredictable.

“But we both have doctors and other experts who will lead us through and if they say our facilities are fine then I have no doubt that the tour will go ahead, unless things take a real turn for the worse. But cricket fans must know that if they comply with all the precautions then they are not only doing it for themselves but doing it in the interests of cricket. I know we are looking at April,” Yacoob said.

The Interim Board’s term of office expires on February 15 and Yacoob said their focus in the next three weeks would be on formulating a new structure for the board.

“Our most important consideration now is how to change the structure of CSA to ensure it works better, and that is an independent process because we have no intention of being on any future CSA board. The main objective is to ensure that the Memorandum of Incorporation (MoI) and the Board Charter are changed in accordance with the Nicholson recommendations i.e. the need for an independent board.

“We are trying to work through what the power of the Members Council should be and the one conclusion is that we cannot have two centres of power. We have decided it would be preferable for the Board to be in control of day-to-day operational matters. If the directors are independent then they will have no personal interest in the decisions taken,” Yacoob said.

While one former director – Omphile Ramela, the previous president of the players’ union – has launched court action to overturn his removal from the Board, another – former Easterns president Xolani Vonya – has been reinstated as a director.

The move seems part of a more conciliatory tone towards the Members Council.

“Mr Vonya is back, because the Board decided that may be better. Some of the reasons for his removal were not fully justified, Easterns did not fully justify their very serious allegations against him. On balance, we had a rethink and decided to be more generous towards him.

“We have not yet really engaged the Members Council on the new MoI and I suspect there will be a difference of opinion, which is justifiable. An independent Board does reduce the power of the Members Council but I am certain they will operate in good faith. There will be genuine and bona fide debate over how independent the Board should be.

“One can get carried away and get people who know nothing about the game and you obviously need to avoid that. The Members Council have to appoint us again and if they don’t approve us again then off we go on February 15 unless the Minister of Sport does something. We would have to tell the Minister that we have not finished our work, but I personally would not implore him to intervene, he must make an objective decision,” Yacoob said.

South Africa’s new Test captain will take office on Friday with Cricket South Africa due to make the announcement following a lengthy meeting between the selectors and director of cricket Graeme Smith on Thursday afternoon.

While Smith said back in April that white-ball skipper Quinton de Kock will not be the Test captain as well due to workload concerns – a decision the wicketkeeper/batsman has backed – there have been recent mutterings that, with a new convenor of selectors in place in Victor Mpitsang, that position might be revisited.

But Mpitsang, newly installed as convenor, is unlikely to want to rock the boat too much as he presides over his first Test squad. There was certainly nothing controversial or left-field in the white-ball squads chosen for the curtailed series against England, and it is most likely that a placeholder captain will be put in place on Friday.

That’s because two of the most obvious candidates for the captaincy – batsmen Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma – have not exactly cemented their places in the Test line-up.

Markram averaged just 28.61 in 2019 and needs to win his place in the XI back after injuring himself in the Boxing Day Test a year ago against England. While he has almost certainly done that by scoring three successive centuries for the Titans in four-day cricket, he now needs to regain that consistency at international level.

Bavuma returned to the side for the final Test against England, scoring 27 and 6 as South Africa’s batting disappointed at the Wanderers, and he averaged just 19.84 in 2019. And in all cricket this summer he has scored just 150 runs in six innings, plus he will not be playing in this weekend’s round of four-day matches for the Imperial Lions, having been released to attend to personal matters.

But with Faf du Plessis having retired from Test cricket, Bavuma is almost certain to keep his place in the Test team, although making him captain would appear to be placing unnecessary pressure on him whilst his Test future is still uncertain.

Rassie van der Dussen has shown great leadership qualities ever since he made his Proteas debut in October 2018. But he is still making his way in Test cricket, having only played four matches.

The Proteas do, however, have a ready-made candidate to take over the captaincy from Du Plessis, even if it is just as a stand-in for a couple of seasons. Dean Elgar is established in the Test team, having scored 3888 runs in 63 matches at the solid average of 38.49, considering South Africa is the toughest place to open the batting.

The 33-year-old Elgar is highly respected in the changeroom, especially for his indomitable qualities, and has openly put his name in the hat for the captaincy. Plus he has done the job before – leading the team against England at Lord’s in 2017 and to victory over Pakistan in Johannesburg in January 2019.

With South African cricket in such turmoil at the moment and the Proteas languishing in a woeful eighth place in the ICC World Test Championship, now is the time for stability and not gambling.

Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa has already accepted that there is no way Cricket South Africa will be able to hold their AGM on December 5, but that does not mean the new interim board of directors he announced on Friday are there for a holiday.

Mthethwa tasked the interim board with completing their mandate within three months, although he did leave the door open for their term of office to be extended.

“The interim board need to hit the ground running and deal with the current governance and structural issues. They should aim to implement the Nicholson Commission recommendations, consider the Fundudzi Forensic Report and take the recommended action or whatever action they deem to be appropriate, review all board decisions made since 2019 and restore the integrity and reputation of CSA.

“They have three months to do this, but that may be extended based on their progress. We hope they will deliver because this group knows exactly what it has to do and the Members Council still has an obligation to ensure their work is moving well. But there is no way December 5 can remain as the date for their AGM, which could have been avoided if certain people had listened earlier,” Mthethwa said on Friday.

The new interim board of directors is chaired by Judge Zak Yacoob, a former justice of the Constitutional Court, and includes other ‘independent’ figures in Caroline Mampuru, the deputy head of the Special Investigative Unit, Stavros Nicolaou, a senior executive for a major pharmaceutical company, and Andile Dawn Mbatha, the chief financial officer of the Independent Electoral Commission.

But a trio of passionate cricket-lovers who have gone to town in recent times in their criticism of the organisation and the recently-resigned board have also found accommodation on the interim board.

The most astonishing appointment is that of Haroon Lorgat, who has been at the forefront of CSA’s critics and was the federation’s chief executive as recently as September 2017, before being deposed by the power bloc that included Thabang Moroe, whose tenure and subsequent suspension and firing have been central to CSA’s governance crisis. But Lorgat is an internationally-respected administrator who is a former CEO of the International Cricket Council and CSA was a stable organisation during his watch.

Omphile Ramela, the president of the South African Cricketers Association, has also been a strident critic of CSA on behalf of the players, while Judith February is a lawyer and governance expert for the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Institute for Security Studies, as well as a respected columnist who has also expressed her dismay over the administration of a sport she is clearly passionate about.

Andre Odendaal, the former CEO of the Western Province Cricket Association and the Cape Cobras, is another appointee, who has had a long history in the game as a first-class player, administrator and historian.

There is also a member of the old guard on the interim board in Xolani Vonya, the recently-resigned Easterns president who has been a strong supporter of both Moroe and company secretary Welsh Gwaza, who has been seen as a stumbling block to change at the organisation.

Vonya has been a controversial figure because the Easterns union have been wanting to get rid of him for many months, including holding a vote of no confidence against him, but Moroe and Gwaza gave him legal support to fight his removal.