Arendse back in the running for place on CSA board
JOHANNESBURG: Cricket South Africa’s board of directors put the organisation’s administrative reforms into reverse yesterday, creating great distance between themselves and the recommendations made by Judge Chris Nicholson last year.
Instead of a sleeker board comprising a balance between directors with expertise outside of cricket and administrators familiar with the demands of the sport locally, the decisions made at yesterday’s special meeting of the current board agreed to a new board which will eventually consist of 16 people, just three fewer than the current structure.
In his report into the game’s administration last year following his inquiry which led to the suspension of CSA chief executive Gerald Majola, Nicholson recommended an 11-member board which should include nine non-executive independent members.
CSA, after initially agreeing with Nicholson’s recommendations, thought a better fit for the organisation would be a 5-5 split – with five independents and five non-independents – and a chief executive, which makes up an 11-member board.
Yesterday it was decided, however, that an interim board consisting of five independent directors and seven non-independents would serve for 18 months, after which a further four directors – two independent and two non-independent – would be added.
The outcome is certainly a victory for the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), which is vehemently opposed to a balance between independents and non-independents.
Sascoc’s constant refrain has been that “sport must be run by sports people”, a statement that stood in stark contrast to Nicholson’s expressed view that professional sports administration needs experts from the legal fraternity and business community.
It is in keeping with Sascoc’s demands for their affiliates that CSA have to increase the size of their board as the Olympic body requires all nine provincial areas to be represented at senior administrative level.
CSA also adhered to Sascoc’s policy that the board’s new chairperson must come from the non-independents. The chairperson will also be the president of CSA.
Meanwhile, one of the independent directors will be appointed “lead director” to guide the chairperson.
Yesterday’s meeting also agreed that Norman Arendse would be among the candidates recommended as an independent director when the annual general meeting takes place on February 2.
Arendse’s name was not among five independent candidates CSA announced last October, but he successfully approached Sascoc, arguing he’d been unfairly ignored.
CSA’s members forum will elect the new board at the AGM, with each candidate needing more than 50% votes to be successful.
The board will also select the organisation’s new chief executive after the AGM.
The players’ union, the SA Cricketers’ Association, which has lodged a dispute with CSA at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, was largely satisfied with the outcome.
“We were expecting a 7-5 split, which was always going to happen to satisfy Sascoc’s demands,” Saca chief executive Tony Irish said. Saca’s executive will meet in the next few days to discuss the decisions reached yesterday.
There were some heated exchanges about the lack of black African representation in the national Test team following Thami Tsolekile’s claims three weeks ago that he had been promised a spot in the side for the New Zealand series.
National selection convener Andrew Hudson had to explain his panel’s decision regarding Tsolekile’s absence from the squad to the board.
“The urgent need to improve representation of black Africans at all levels from school/club through to franchises and on to national level was stressed as an imperative,” CSA said in a statement.