Ken Borland

The SA20 Auction was always going to be one of the key events in the build-up to the launch of the new T20 league early next year, crucial in getting the public behind Cricket South Africa’s proposed financial saviour.

Unfortunately the six franchises made a complete hash of it by snubbing one of this country’s most popular players. I’m not sure whether Temba Bavuma’s status as captain of the national T20 team or the fact he is a role-model and hero to so many is most important, but either way, he should be playing in the SA20.

His highly-controversial snubbing – there is no other word for it when you fail to get a bid despite going on auction three times – has led to ferocious debate. Some of it has been so lacking in clarity of thought or decent humanity that it reminds me a bit of how Hashim Amla was treated in the early stages of his international career. Despite scoring prolifically for KwaZulu-Natal, Amla had many critics who said he would never make it at international level.

Amla showed ‘em alright how wrong that characterisation of his abilities was.

Let’s be clear, I’m not saying Bavuma should automatically have been bought simply because he is a Proteas captain, or his popularity, or the colour of his skin. I’m saying choose him because there are compelling cricketing reasons to do so.

That the 32-year-old is not the most explosive T20 batsman is a given, but he can perform a very important role in the top-three, especially when conditions give the bowlers a bit of assistance. I watched him score an outstanding century at the Wanderers to win the Highveld Lions the T20 title against the Warriors in 2019.

My point is three of the franchises clearly chose players instead of Bavuma who do not have better records than him.

My alarm bells were ringing when Sunrisers Eastern Cape bought Marques Ackerman in the 12^th round of bidding, admittedly for just R175 000, compared to Bavuma’s base price of R850 000, which was clearly set too high, either by himself or whoever advised him poorly.

Because we’re going to be comparing records of these top-three batsmen, Bavuma’s T20 stats are the baseline. In 25 internationals, he has a strike-rate of 120.60 and an average of 26.76. But there were some purely domestic players who were chosen ahead of him, so Bavuma’s local stats are 100 matches, a strike-rate of 124.67 and an average of 30.52.

Ackerman has played just 39 domestic T20s and strikes at 123.68, with an average of 24.25.

There was an even bigger warning that Bavuma was in for humiliation when Durban Super Giants bought West Indian Johnson Charles in the next round. A bang-average T20 player based on his stats: In 34 internationals, he has a strike-rate of only 121.68 and an average of only 21.93. His domestic figures are 128.63 and 25.76. And before you bring up his wicketkeeping, Durban already had Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen in their squad.

In the next round, Super Kings bought Matthew Breetzke, a sound investment in up-and-coming talent, but he has a domestic strike-rate of 129.43 and an average of 24.78. Like many of the local cricketers, half of those matches have been in the semi-pro ranks, so you really cannot compare him with Bavuma.

When Sunrisers Eastern Cape then bought Test opener Sarel Erwee in Round 15, it really seemed like the auction was merely a device for our IPL overlords to ram home some sort of anti-transformation agenda.

Erwee strikes at 123.64 and has an average of 24.70.

One wonders how much local input the franchises used.

And considering the awful racist targeting of Bavuma and Andile Phehlukwayo, whose omission from the SA20 is also a shock, by some Indian social media, and the right-wing, anti-liberal current Indian government, one wonders whether there is not more to these auction outcomes than meets the eye.

We sincerely hope not.

It took the most gruelling of meetings, but after 11 hours of intense wrangling, the Cricket South Africa Members Council on Sunday night finally agreed to the new constitution proposed by the Interim Board, marking the end of the crisis in cricket that would have led to Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa withdrawing their recognition at the end of the week.

The Members Council met on Saturday afternoon and then went into a meeting with the Interim Board from 10am on Sunday. The initial attitude of the Members Council seemed to be that CSA should “defend” their autonomy against the Minister’s looming action, especially since Sascoc issued a strong rejection of having a majority independent board in a statement on Saturday.

But with the threat of irreparable harm being done to the game if they were suspended by the minister, agreement was eventually reached on all the outstanding issues that prevented the Members Council from approving the MoI last weekend.

Sascoc, who have warned CSA that they could have their membership of the mother body suspended if they agree to an majority independent board and an independent chair, will obviously still be an obstacle, but it is believed Mthethwa will be handling that side of the conflict.

CSA issued a communique half-an-hour before midnight on Sunday night, the headline of which included the gorgeous words “Joint Statement” indicating agreement had finally been reached and a catastrophe averted. In terms of Section 60 of the Companies Act, an expedited process has now been triggered which will see the MoI being adopted in the next 48 hours.

“By reaching this agreement, cricket in South Africa has adopted a governance mode which is best practice both in South Africa and internationally,” the statement said. Both Members Council president Rihan Richards and Interim Board chair Dr Stavros Nicolaou were then quoted expressing their delight at the cessation of hostilities.

The provincial presidents on the Members Council who are in favour of the proposed changes to the governance of Cricket South Africa seem to be taking responsibility for solving the impasse with the Interim Board and Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa as six of the unions have now issued statements supporting a majority independent board and an independent chairperson.

It may still be a case of too little, too late though as Mthethwa mulls what action to take under Section 13 (5) of the Sports Act against CSA for missing their deadline to approve a new constitution ahead of an AGM.

On Wednesday, the Northerns and Mpumalanga cricket unions issued statements supporting the stance of Central Gauteng, North-West, Easterns and Free State that there should be a majority independent board and independent chairperson.

The two Highveld unions also called for all stakeholders to take part in a national indaba, steered by an independent mediator, to resolve the impasse as quickly as possible.

But in his letter to the Members Council on Tuesday night telling them he would be taking action against them according to the provisions of the Sports Act, Mthethwa said “your proposal to convene a multi-party stakeholder conference to deal with a matter that you have been seized with for a number of months, does not make sense to me.”

Because Mthethwa has the authority to no longer recognise CSA, it would mean South Africa could go back to the days of isolation and not have an official national team.

As the sports minister told a radio station on Tuesday night, if things continue the way they are, the world will have to be told there is no cricket in South Africa.

It is not known whether Cricket South Africa’s Members Council mourned their earlier delaying tactics and scheming, but on Tuesday, as their deadline to accept the governance changes proposed by the Interim Board passed, they requested another extension from Sports Minister Nathi Mtethwa.

Mthethwa had given the Members Council until 5pm on Tuesday to show cause why he should not take action against CSA following their failure at the weekend to accept a majority independent board and an independent chairperson. From an interview the sports minister gave to a radio station on Tuesday night, it seems the Members Council did respond on Tuesday evening.

It is believed Mthethwa will decide on appropriate action overnight.

But having dragged out negotiations for so long, and then finally tried to negotiate at the last hour, it would be understandable if the Minister were to give them short shrift.

A Members Council statement issued earlier on Tuesday is likely to form the basis of their last-ditch appeal to Mthethwa. In the statement, they said they did not have enough time to study and react to the final draft of the Memorandum of Incorporation. They said the Interim Board only gave them the draft less than a day before the Special General Meeting.

The Members Council were not happy that the issue of Sascoc not allowing the CSA constitution to be amended without their approval has not yet been resolved and that the MoI makes provision for just four non-independent directors and not the five that had allegedly been agreed upon earlier. Some provincial presidents are also not willing to accept an independent chairperson of the board and the Interim Board also being the nominations committee for the independent directors.

But Gauteng and North-West issued a statement on Tuesday distancing themselves from the rest of the Members Council and supporting a majority independent board and an independent chairperson. Their stance is believed to be supported by at least three other provinces and Northerns also look likely to accept the amendments to the constitution.