CSA has fallen behind the required run rate

At long last there seems to be some positive movement in terms of the contract negotiations between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the players’ union, the South African Cricketers’ Association.

The signing of an interim agreement that ensures all players will have a contract on May 1 brings stability at the professional level of South African cricket.

The actual new memorandum of understanding still needs to be agreed though, and there is still work to be done at the negotiating table before the deadline of June 30 for this to be in place.

This bit of good news should not obscure the fear, however, that there is a leadership vacuum at CSA at the moment.

Having so blatantly attacked the players union in the build-up to negotiations, Thabang Moroe has much to do to mend the relationship with the players, who are CSA’s most important asset. Having also been caught lying about a press briefing he held for black journalists only on February 8 – the actual SMS explicitly refers to Moroe wanting to address journalists and there was no mention of it being a Gauteng Cricket Board function as he later claimed – the former cellphone executive has been creating a lot of waves for someone who is only employed in an acting capacity at the moment.

At least the CSA board, infamous for sitting on their hands while all manner of scandals go on around them, have apparently made some moves to rein their acting CEO in a bit.

Of course, any attempt to get much official comment from CSA these days is doomed to failure because they have parted ways with their former head of media and communications Altaaf Kazi and they have failed to replace him.

Kazi, who was doing a fine job for CSA and was popular with all their most important stakeholders, had been smeared with the brush of being aligned with the former CEO Haroon Lorgat and it seemed clear the new regime at CSA wanted him out.

The infamous masks saga in Port Elizabeth – which, to be fair, was an extremely poor attempt at humour – gave CSA all the excuse they needed.

The appointment of a new communications manager remains a mystery nearly seven weeks after Kazi was suspended and fellow social media blooper Clive Eksteen, CSA’s highly competent head of commercial and marketing, is still in limbo. Officially suspended, there has been no news of any disciplinary hearing or any replacement to fill his crucial position either.

Eksteen was also one of the “Lorgat people” who the new powers-that-be at CSA were trying to shift, even though the failure to launch the T20 Global League had little to do with him.

It is obvious that CSA’s pet project is not going to happen next season either. All that seems to be going on in that regard is lots of discussions over how to make it financially viable, but the absence of Indian players and resulting devaluation of the product in terms of broadcast deals remains the most crucial stumbling block.

The To Do List for Cricket South Africa is getting longer and longer even though the local season has just finished and the appointment of a permanent CEO is another of the nettles the slow-to-respond CSA board needs to grasp.

The lack of oversight – which is their legal, fiduciary duty – they exercised is what got South African cricket into this mess in the first place.