Ken Borland

Depending on whether you believe the suspended chief executive and his legal advisors, Cricket South Africa now have two CEOs in Thabang Moroe and Jacques Faul and it is a chaotic situation that is almost entirely the fault of the president Chris Nenzani and the CSA Board.

It has been more than six months now since CSA’s Social and Ethics and Audit and Risk committees provided the evidence needed to suspend Moroe on December 6. A time period which, according to Moroe’s lawyer Michael Bill, means his suspension has lapsed. Which is why the suspended CEO pulled his brazen stunt this week of rocking up to CSA’s offices in Melrose Estate to ‘report for duty’ and there just happened to be a radio journalist on the scene to take the photo …

Despite the South African Cricketers’ Association warning CSA at the beginning of the week that their failure to make progress on Moroe’s disciplinary hearing would seriously erode the small gains in confidence that have been painstakingly acquired by acting CEO Faul and director of cricket Graeme Smith, the CSA Board were taken by surprise by Moroe’s act of defiance and, despite having practically the whole day to respond, could only issue a statement after midnight in the early hours of Friday morning.

While acknowledging that it might not be easy to pin down a slippery character like Moroe, six months is surely enough time to formulate charges against him given that the financial audit was already picking up irregularities a couple of months into their brief. Plus the state of cricket in December and the relationships Moroe had destroyed with vital stakeholders such as the players association, sponsors and the media should be enough to dismiss a chief executive for obvious incompetence.

The CSA Board have made such a pig’s ear of the entire situation that it is easy to wonder if it has not all been deliberate. Nenzani and Moroe were certainly in cahoots for much of the program of Cricket Capture and it is known that there are still directors who want the former CEO back. Plus the person responsible for handling disciplinary matters, company secretary and head of legal Welsh Gwaza, is a known Moroe ally.

Perhaps commercial manager Clive Eksteen and chief operations manager Naasei Appiah should also get ideas now and return to work after they were suspended by Moroe at the end of October? The then CEO made them, along with Corrie van Zyl, who has already been found guilty and given a final warning, the scapegoats for SACA not receiving the image rights money that was due to the players. But the players’ association say there is proof that it was not Appiah, Eksteen and Van Zyl who were delaying the payments but Moroe himself. Such malfeasance should be sufficient reason to dismiss the CEO.

The CSA Board’s response to Moroe’s ‘return to work’ was to say he is still suspended. Those incompetent directors who have shown themselves to be utterly incapable of coming up with ideas that will benefit the game look set to argue that the former CEO was never told his suspension would only last six months. But Nenzani is on record as having promised the process would be completed within six months.

CSA’s disciplinary processes talk about employees only being suspended for two months, unless there are exceptional circumstances. The Board obviously believe there are exceptional reasons for them to have flouted process, while Moroe and his legal team are within their rights to claim they have been unfairly prejudiced, pointing out that there has been a lack of formal written communication and just ‘conversations’.

There is little doubt the whole fiasco is heading for court and it will be for a judge to decide whether CSA or Moroe are in the right.

It’s going to be yet another financial drain on an organisation that was in dire straits even before the Covid-19 pandemic. All of this overseen by Nenzani, who is still trying to wrangle the constitution into allowing him to stand for yet another term as president. He has changed the constitution three times already and is the longest-serving president South African cricket has ever had to endure. And what good has he done for the game?

For South African cricket-lovers, it has been another week of shame that our beloved sport is in the hands of such delinquents.

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.

A new contracting model that stops certain unions from hogging all the talent as well as expanded South African participation in the Pro14 are both in the pipeline for SA Rugby, president Mark Alexander said on Wednesday.

The two initiatives are certainly linked as the success of South African teams playing in the Pro14 will depend on them performing well on the field, and there is little doubt the Southern Kings and Free State Cheetahs need to improve their depth to be competitive this year and beyond. Adding two more franchises to the mix will also put more of a premium on player resources.

“We are going to have more South African teams involved in the Pro14, possibly from 2020, we’re in negotiations about it and we are excited about it. We will then have four teams in the southern hemisphere and four in the north, which gives our players more opportunity. The Pro14 works financially for us, especially when we become full members in 2019/20.

“Griquas and Mpumalanga are now part of our franchise system and we are preparing them to play in Europe. We ignored the north for too long, it’s a very strong competition. Sanzaar is also a great competition for us, but the biggest problem is the distances you have to travel. Playing in the Pro14 helps with player welfare and being in the same time zone helps the broadcasters,” Alexander said at the tournament launch at SuperSport studios on Wednesday.

Alexander said that there had also been broad support for a new contracting model that limits the number of senior players each union can have on their books, as well as providing for a loan system that will help all the franchises.

“The new contracting system will allow for a draft. We cannot sustain a system with 990 professional players, but I believe we have enough players. But some franchises are sitting with six locks they have signed from Craven Week and a lot of them are sitting in the storeroom and not playing. They need to be playing instead of sitting around waiting for someone to get injured.

“The new player contracting model is vital in this regard, it will limit the number of players a union can sign to around 45-50 senior players, but there won’t be any pay limit in terms of budgets. This new model has come from the players’ association and it is a very good document. We have created a false market in this country and we need to be responsible because the first thing junior players do when they get signed is stop studying,” Alexander said.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20180830/282063392835512

The equity of the Multiply Titans just keeps rising, with another rich haul of trophies gathered at the Cricket South Africa Awards this year, and much of the credit for that success must go to the leadership and equanimity of Northerns Cricket Union president John Wright.

Apart from achieving success on the playing field – a box the Titans certainly ticked by winning two of the three franchise trophies – the union also places a high premium on CSA’s scorecard system that ranks administration, and winning the Affiliate of the Year title for four successive years is a tremendous feather in their cap.

“For the Northerns Cricket Union to win CSA’s incentive scorecard for four years running is definitely a highlight from an admin perspective, as is every competition we have won on the field. We implemented a turnaround strategy for the stadium, which we remodelled with cosmetic upgrades and making it fit for different uses. Jacques Faul [CEO] has done really well to turn SuperSport Park into a multi-use venue.

“The function of our board is good and there has been very good support from council. Before 2013, there were many meetings postponed because we didn’t have a quorum, but it hasn’t happened once since then. Our club cricket continues to do well too and a good university is critical for any province. The involvement and success of Tuks is one of the reasons we do well, they are strong, with good facilities, coaching and infrastructure,” Wright said.

2013 was the year that Wright began his tenure as NCU president and initially he was meant to serve a maximum of two two-year terms. But then CSA decided in 2015 that presidents can serve two three-year terms and the Northerns council decided recently that the renowned international hockey umpire is eligible for another term when elections are held in August.

If Wright is re-elected, which would seem to be the obvious move, then the 47-year-old will be stressing that there can be no relaxing as the NCU and the Titans have to keep striving for greater heights.

“This is a fantastic union and franchise, steeped in a lot of history, but we mustn’t forget that we weren’t always one of the big dogs. Now we have to maintain our success and keep looking at opportunities to improve. We have achieved a lot, but to rest on our laurels would be a huge mistake.

“The well-being of our clubs is critical and I would like to empower them and provide them with even more opportunities. On the field, obviously the Titans had the chance to do the treble but only ended up with the double. But it’s a very cut-throat, tight competition. But I do believe that we have what it takes to win all three tournaments, we just have to be consistent all the way through,” Wright said.

The senior sports organiser at the Tshwane University of Technology stated that the Northerns provincial team and transformation in schools would be areas of focus for him if he serves another term.

“We’ve ridden the wave for a long time, we’ve been one of the most successful franchises in South African cricket history by winning two trophies for three years in a row, but this season coming will be a good test of where the franchise really is because we will be without a lot of Proteas players. And it’s great that we have provided a number of new players for South Africa recently.

“I would also like to see our Northerns provincial team be more competitive and more consistent, that needs a bit of rebuilding. I hope those coaches are allowed time to come through and are not just hung out to dry after one season. We need to give them an opportunity to establish themselves.

“There’s also a lot of work to do in the transformation of schools. We have not been as effective as we should have been at that level – there are some spectacular results but then some schools are dragging their heels. And I would like to see people have an even bigger attachment to SuperSport Park, make it feel even more familiar for our fans,” Wright said.

The chairman of the Titans franchise is certainly now a familiar face in South African cricket and, having achieved so much already, he still has plenty to give.