Ken Borland

“Trust us” was the anodyne plea made by Cricket South Africa on Thursday to both Sascoc and the cricket-loving public as they continued to try and justify why the complete Fundudzi Forensic Report cannot be made public.

CSA and Sascoc held a joint virtual press conference on Thursday, but far from presenting a unified front, it soon became apparent that the two organisations, both with distressing records in good governance, are at an impasse.

Sascoc president Aleck Skhosana said the mother body of all sports federations in South Africa are still resolved to set up an independent task team to investigate the affairs of CSA, and reiterated that the CSA Board and executive must step aside to ensure they have “unfettered access”.

But that task team will only be appointed after Sascoc have received the full forensic report, Skhosana saying this was necessary “so we don’t put the cart before the horse; if we choose the task team before we might put legal people on there instead of accounting; we need to know what kind of skills are required”.

But CSA are standing firm on their refusal to sideline their Board or executive, and will also only allow Sascoc to view the forensic report on the same basis as the Members Council last weekend – either just in summary form or at one of Bowman Gilfillan’s offices after signing a non-disclosure agreement.

CSA Acting President Beresford Williams said this was for legal reasons.

“It’s on the advice of our legal representatives, who cautioned against releasing it because there is a huge risk that it could compromise future litigation and legal matters that are already in process, plus open us up for future liability. The Members Council resolved unanimously that Sascoc’s access to the report should be under the same conditions as there’s was, in other words a summarised report,” Williams said.

Anne Vilas, the Central Gauteng Lions president and a member of the Members Council, made a plea for that body to be trusted, even though she could not state with 100% certainty whether the summary was written by Bowman Gilfillan, who are CSA’s lawyers and formerly employed controversial company secretary Welsh Gwaza, or by Fundudzi, the independent forensic investigators.

“I have been very vocal about the report but we had very enlightening discussions last weekend and we all understand CSA’s position that it would not be in the organisation’s best interest to make the report public. We don’t want to step on anybody’s rights, but further action will be taken if warranted and we will hold the Board responsible if necessary, you can trust us on that.

“No other investigations have been done to warrant the suspension of anyone other than Thabang Moroe right now, but stuff is going on and things will happen. But unless we firmly believe something is being withheld from us, there is not sufficient reason for the Board to stand down or anyone to resign. There’s nothing stopping any of the directors from standing at the AGM,” Vilas said when asked how the public were meant to believe CSA were not just hiding behind a shield of legal advice.

Williams would not give a straight answer as to whether CSA will comply with Sascoc, after Skhosana outlined the legal powers they have over CSA and their willingness to “take appropriate measures to ensure compliance”.

“Our engagement has been very positive and there has been great dialogue between the parties. We value Sascoc’s role and there’s no doubt that together we will find common ground. we are in engagement and that will continue. CSA responded in detail to Sascoc about our fiduciary duties and we are still engaging and talking to each other. I’m confident that we can move forward and find common ground,” Williams said in a top-class piece of obfuscation.

The former Western Province Cricket Association president also showed a distinct affection for denial when he said he and the other Board members had nothing to be held accountable over.

“I assure you that if there were any cases of concern in the report then we would have stood down. There were no negative findings to threaten the AGM and the Members Council unanimously agree that we should not be held accountable. I took the decision to continue to serve the game I’m passionate about, if I had acted irresponsibly or not in the best interests of CSA as a director then I would have moved on,” Williams said.

But “unanimously” is a word CSA have had a history of not understanding the proper meaning of and, as Skhosana himself said, “All trust has been lost in Cricket South Africa and we see evidence of that on a daily basis.”

Winter may be upon us and the country still in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, but according to Central Gauteng Lions Cricket chief executive Jono Leaf-Wright, there are still sunny skies over the Wanderers and the floodlights will metaphorically keep shining bright through the crisis.

Leaf-Wright said the Johannesburg-based franchise is in a good position to hit the ground running when cricket resumes when he spoke in an online press conference to introduce the new Central Gauteng Lions board.

“The financials were in a great place back in February, but nobody envisaged then the impact Covid would have and we have lost many revenue streams. But it was to our benefit that the virus hit at the back end of our season and we are still in a decent place with no real long-term impact to the organisation. We are all working really hard on returning to work, training and playing.

“But we’re also working on mitigating the risks so we can return as quickly as possible and as safely as possible. It’s full steam ahead for our operations team and we’ve had exciting interest from our sponsors. Hopefully a lot of us will be back at the Wanderers in the next week or two and the floodlights are staying on to show people we are ready to return as soon as government allows,” Leaf-Wright said on Friday.

Leaf-Wright said they were hopeful that domestic cricket would be able to resume in November, but said they would be able to weather the storm if they had to wait until the new year.

“The plans we have discussed with Cricket South Africa are to have matches in November and there are still international tours that need to go ahead before that. There may be some problems if we don’t start as planned, but obviously we have to put safety first, we have a duty of care to the players. It’s not essential that we get back to playing in November, but we would need to if we are going to fit everything into the season.

“There are new tournaments that we want to launch but we won’t be able to if the schedule is full. The three existing events, the four-day series, One-Day Cup and the new-look Mzansi Super League, are key for us and our sponsors though. It’s just about how jam-packed we can make the season. In the meantime everybody on the team is working hard to stay fit and strong,” Leaf-Wright said.

The Springboks have so many guys playing well at the moment that I see us getting the result against Australia in Perth on Saturday, even though the Wallabies have been very competitive against the All Blacks for the last 120 minutes – it’s just the first 40 minutes of the first Test in which they were hammered.

Australian rugby is not at its strongest state at the moment and there has been a losing culture around the players from SuperRugby and a two-game loss to New Zealand, which has been their traditional start to the Rugby Championship.

They did come very close to winning in Dunedin and they probably should have won that match, but they haven’t been convincing, whereas the Springboks are full of confidence, belief in their systems and they have momentum. You can just see the positivity in the camp.

On the back of two losses, the Wallabies will be in a motivated and desperate state, but the confidence is not quite there.

Australia don’t have the same weapons as the Springboks do and they don’t have much of a kicking game. In fact they don’t want to kick, everything is about ball-in-hand for them, so obviously if the Springbok defence stands up well, opportunities could be created by the Wallabies trying to play under pressure.

There has been an exceptional improvement in the Springbok defence and the players are working so hard for each other, they’re getting off the line and smashing the opposition. It just shows that defence can be a weapon as well.

Australia will want to carry the ball a lot, they want to outscore teams, but the Springbok defence has proven quite lethal in stopping attacks and forcing turnovers, and then finishing those off.

Australia have a few good ball-carriers at centre, but the Springbok defence has been very good from first phase and they coped well against France, who had big wings and midfielders.

The Wallabies will try to beat you through phase play, which means they can become very vulnerable themselves later on in the movement, around phases five to 10, when the attack is not as structured and there’s a chance for turnovers.

Australia also don’t have the best scrum and Stephen Moore being out will affect that even more. Their back row is also a lot younger than it was previously.

Centre Tevita Kuridrani is the big threat in their team with the way he runs inwards at the lineout vacuum – that area between the last player in the lineout and the first backline defender. He can be a handful running hard and headlong into that hole.

Flyhalf Bernard Foley is definitely a threat as well, especially around middle rucks, because he has good feet and gets quite flat so he is able to go at the inside pillars.

We just don’t know from week-to-week though what team Wallabies coach Michael Cheika will pick, which is the difference between the teams because we virtually know the Springbok team from one to 23. It’s settled, which is a big advantage, and they’ve had combinations now for five Tests and they’ve performed really well. The biggest positive for the Springboks is that consistency of selection, which means the players are confident in the people around them.

The Perth crowd can also be 50/50 when it comes to who they support between South Africa and the Wallabies, but the pitch is very removed from the stands, so the crowd is quite a long way back. It also makes it a bit difficult for the kickers because the stadium is just different to most others.

The other unknown is that the Boks have not been in a losing position in any Test so far this year, they’ve been in control after the first 20-30 minutes of every game. So that is the only box unticked – if they are 10-15 points down after the first half-hour or 40 minutes, can they come back? That is the only question mark against them, but I’m sure they can do that if necessary as well.

There’s real hope that we can win in Perth for the first time since 2009. Elton Jantjies is in such a rich vein of form, the defence is so strong and the attack has been lethal – scoring at least four tries in every Test this year has been phenomenal.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.

“The lack of bonus points is what has hurt us,” Bulls coach Nollis Marais said on Tuesday as he contemplated the three-point gap between them and the Sharks and the four extra points the Stormers have, deficits they now have three weeks to make up, starting with this weekend’s awkward trip to Buenos Aires to play the Jaguares .

The Bulls, Sharks and Stormers all won seven of their dozen matches in the first segment of SuperRugby, so Marais is spot on with his analysis.

“Not getting bonus points when we beat the Reds and Rebels is now a problem for us and we have to make sure we win our next three games, just to control our destiny a bit. But it doesn’t help if we now just allow ourselves to stagnate, we must definitely move forward in our intensity and in the way we want to play.

“We want to show our fight and we must go out and play an attacking brand of rugby. We definitely have that mindset. We can’t just maul sides, that’s not the way we want to play. We want to play more with the ball in certain areas, play a high-intensity game. The maul and set-pieces still play a big part, but we can’t just have that, we must also break the line,” Marais said.

The Bulls squad that will leave for Argentina on Wednesday has been rocked by injuries.

Flank Deon Stegmann, lock Grant Hattingh and wing Bjorn Basson have injured themselves in training, to add to the injuries picked up on international duty by prop Trevor Nyakane and lock RG Snyman.

The Bulls will also be led by Lappies Labuschagne because Springbok captain Adriaan Strauss is being given a rest as per the agreement with Saru.

“Nothing needs to be said by me, everyone knows what needs to be done and we’re all working towards the same goal. We’re in a good space, it’s a big game and one we really want to win. The past is in the past, but we can rectify the mistakes we made and we’re really fired up for the rest of the season. We’re really positive for what lies ahead,” Labuschagne said.