Ken Borland

Travel from South Africa may be blacklisted now by many Western nations due to the discovery of a new Covid variant, but the Netherlands cricket team made it clear on Saturday that their decision to postpone their series against the Proteas had nothing to do with safety concerns but was all about the uncertainty created by the travel bans that have been instituted.

Cricket South Africa and the Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond released a statement on Saturday afternoon saying they had agreed to ‘defer’ the remainder of the ODI series. That means the matches at Centurion on Sunday and the Wanderers on Wednesday will no longer take place. The first ODI at SuperSport Park was washed out two overs into the Netherlands’ pursuit of the Proteas’ target of 278.

“We have been taken care of by Cricket South Africa in a magnificent way, they have done everything to make us feel safe,” Netherlands manager Steven van Dijk told The Citizen on Saturday.

“So it’s not that we feel unsafe at all, the bubble has been executed perfectly. The only insecurity we have felt is not being able to fly home.

“So we have not been able to end the series because there is so much uncertainty. Some guys need to fly to New Zealand, others to England, which is a problem, the Netherlands too, people had to sit for hours at the airport.

“The players are getting phone calls from home, worried messages, some of them have young kids at home or pregnant partners. So we are looking at all the options for flights – two people getting tickets here, another three there,” Van Dijk said.

Worries about how welcome the players will be upon their return to Europe are also weighing on the minds of the squad. Van Dijk said there was also no clarity over what will await the team on the other end of their flight.

“The conditions of entry change by the hour. The people on Friday’s flight to Schiphol had to wait seven hours to be tested and if they were negative they were allowed to leave the airport and go home for a 10-day quarantine.

“If they were positive then they had to quarantine in a hotel. Of the 600 people on that plane, 61 tested positive. But at the moment we are all just guessing what will happen when we land.

“We were booked to fly on December 2 but we are not sure if we can leave earlier. That’s probably the worst-case scenario and the guys who urgently need to get home, like those with pregnant partners, we are trying to get home sooner,” Van Dijk said.

Cricket South Africa’s decision to postpone their AGM until they first have clarity on what exactly is contained in the forensic reports they have commissioned was generally received as a rare bit of good news for the embattled organisation on Tuesday.

CSA were meant to stage their AGM on Saturday with a new president and several other directors meant to be elected, but that has now been put off indefinitely with the organisation saying they needed to first undergo a governance and structural review based on the recommendations of both the Fundudzi forensic report commissioned when former CEO Thabang Moroe was suspended and also the Nicholson Commission of Inquiry that dates all the way back to 2012 and related to the Gerald Majola bonus scandal.

Moroe was fired last week, with Kugandrie Govender appointed acting CEO, Jacques Faul having stood down from that temporary position the week before.

Most importantly, the postponement means the Members Council have for the first time stood united and flexed their muscle in bringing the Board to order and, crucially, they will now get to see the forensic report into Moroe which is believed to also implicate several Board members in misgovernance. The CSA Board initially refused to release the report to the Members Council, comprising the 14 provincial affiliates, even though they had commissioned the inquiry, and then said they had to peruse it at the Bowman Gilfillan legal offices, only after signing a non-disclosure agreement.

“It’s a win, definitely. It means we can get our house 100% in order before the AGM, it gives us more time to make sure of that. And we are optimistic that we will get access to the forensic report with conditions that won’t hamper us. This has come about because of pressure from the Members Council, who have now shown they have teeth. The Board now seems to be seeking our advice on things like the Memorandum of Incorporation [which formalises the governance structure of CSA],”  a Members Council representative told The Citizen on Tuesday, under promise of anonymity because acting president Beresford Williams has decreed that only he is allowed to speak to the media.

“It’s a positive, it gives us time to clear up our issues, although obviously the problem of the CEO [Moroe] won’t be amongst them because that’s probably going to be decided by a court case. But in terms of the Memorandum of Incorporation, the postponement gives the Members Council a clear opportunity to review that and they will also be able to see the forensic report, the Board is just crafting conditions around that,” another Members Council administrator said.

With South African cricket lurching through almost daily crises in recent times, both the Proteas men’s and women’s sides, through their players’ union SACA, issued a statement on Tuesday calling for CSA to put the good of the game as a whole first.

“As Proteas players, both men and women, we are concerned about the future of our game. At Board and operational level, CSA has lurched from crisis to crisis over the past year. Issues such as suspensions, dismissals, resignations, forensic audits, confidential leaks, litigation and financial mismanagement have dominated the cricket headlines. This is happening at a time when we are having challenging conversations about transformation, and in an environment where the financial viability of the game is under major threat.  
“High standards are expected of us as players. To succeed as Proteas teams, we know we have to put aside personal differences and work together. We require the same of our administrators. Politics and self-interest appear to trump cricket imperatives and good governance. Decisions must be made that are in the best interests of cricket, failing which the game we love may be irreparably damaged in this country. The Proteas teams must be strong, the domestic structure must be strong, and the transformation pipeline must be strong – we demand that this be the focus of the CSA Board and operational team.
“The CSA AGM scheduled for 5 September has now been postponed. This may be the last chance we have to change direction and save the game. As Proteas we demand that all stakeholders heed our sincere plea,” the statement read.