CSA boss guns for players’ union
POWER: CSA BOSS IS SEEKING TO GET MORE CONTROL OVER THE PLAYERS
‘Too many of [the players’] day-to-day needs have been outsourced’.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive Thabang Moroe has admitted that the new Proteas management structure is an effort to bring the national team closer to the organisation, while pushing the South African Cricketers’ Association (Saca) further away from the dayto-day activities of the team.
CSA announced last weekend that a director of cricket, reporting directly to Moroe, would now be the man in charge of cricketing matters, with a team director
under him, who would be the new head coach.
But it seems the motivation for the restructuring is not so much the welfare of the national team as an effort to regain control.
CSA and Saca are currently locked in a dispute that is likely to land up in the labour court over the planned restructuring of the domestic game. Moroe has made no effort in the past to hide his desire to be a union buster.
“We wanted to bring the national team closer to the organisation, have better lines of communication and the board and CSA senior management want to have more influence over the style of play and culture of the team.
“There’s been a bit of a disconnect between the organisation and the players, who are not to blame.
“The problem is too many of their day-to-day needs have been outsourced to Saca and that drives the players towards those who seem to be looking after them.
“We want to take back responsibility, make CSA the one-stop shop for the players.
“We hoped to engage with the players to explain our thinking, but Saca refused to grant us the opportunity.
They said [Saca CEO] Tony Irish would represent the players.
“But we’re trying to make sure our message is represented truthfully,” Moroe said at CSA headquarters yesterday.
Acting director of cricket Corrie van Zyl is the only person in CSA senior management or on the board who has any first-class cricket experience. But concentrating a huge amount of power in one person’s hands, did not concern Moroe.
“You talk about cricket experience but we don’t see that as being that important. We are after the brains of the individual. In the past we had people with worldclass experience and that didn’t win us the World Cup either,” he said.
Moroe also dismissed concerns that his cash-strapped organisation would not be able to come up with the fat salary needed to attract a figure of substance for the powerful director of cricket role.
Van Zyl will travel to India with the Proteas on tour next month to share some of the responsibility with the interim team director.
He said efforts to find the new head coach were at an advanced stage, but could not confirm that Highveld Lions coach Enoch Nkwe is to be the interim team director.
Van Zyl did confirm, however, that Faf du Plessis will continue as Test captain and some of Ottis Gibson’s technical staff have been retained for the India tour.