Too many facts leave Cricket SA unable to spin
Considering that they are serving two sets of bosses who are at odds with each other, the communications team at Cricket SA may have more spin in their heads than in their media releases these days.
As Cricket SA’s governance debacle stumbles on, this time with the members council (MC) running to hide behind the bandy legs of the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), missives from “Cricket SA Media” arrived in a rush this week. On Sunday, they mailed a statement from the interim board which wished “to again express its disappointment” with the actions of the members’ council at the special general meeting (SGM).
On Tuesday, Cricket SA Media issued a statement that began: “The members’ council of Cricket SA has today shared a factual account of the events leading to the voting at the SGM and the misrepresentations that were made. Following the recent SGM conducted by Cricket SA, the MC are of the opinion that not all facts were presented by the IB in terms of the vote that recently vetoed the adoption of the proposed memorandum of incorporation.”
It was an e-mail so factual, in fact, that they sent it twice on Tuesday — at 7.49am and then again at 5.01pm. It had all the facts, you see. The members wanted to check we all had the facts, such as they hadn’t had “anytime” (sic) to send, discuss and approve the final draft of the memorandum of incorporation with the actual custodians of cricket, which are the affiliates. Hence there was a plea for a seven-day extension, which was rejected by the IB.
It has been reported that the first fact in their factual account, that they did not have time, isn’t factual. The MC and the IB had met in the week leading up to the SGM and had discussed the memorandum of incorporation. So, some of the recalcitrant MC members hauled in Barry Hendricks from Sascoc and he turned some heads with talk of the constitution and blahblah-blah.
It was a move straight from the Jacob “Catch Me If You Can” Zuma playbook: part ways with yet another set of lawyers and delay, delay, delay. On Wednesday morning, Cricket SA Media forwarded a statement from the Northerns Cricket Union that said it had met on Tuesday to discuss the MC/IB impasse.
While the “mandate makes provision for a majority independent board and independent chairperson”, it made “strong recommendations
that the chairperson must be someone with the skill and experience to lead Cricket SA. Further to this, at least one independent director must have played international cricket and at least two members must have served in sports structures.”
Northerns also wanted a national indaba to include, and this is the order it put them in, “Saca/Sponsors/Interim Board/Members’ Council/Sascoc/Ministry”.
It was, as Stuart Hess of The Star pointed out, the finest of fine-line walking. One-and-ahalf hours later, Cricket SA Media was in action once again, this time passing on a statement from the Mpumalanga Cricket Union “and all its affiliates”. They supported the IB and supported the requirements of the Nicholson report. The union hopes that “an amicable resolve is still able to be achieved through a mediator involving all stakeholders”.
Wednesday was a busy day for Cricket SA Media. A few hours later, the inbox pinged with the news that Cricket SA had “concluded several legal matters with certain former staff members and service providers”.
Naasei Appiah, the former COO and CFO, had decided to move on. So had Ziyanda Nkuta, the former finance manager. They also resolved their wrangle with People Link (Pty) Ltd, the former human resources service provider for Cricket SA. People Link made about R3m from April to July 1 2020, including invoicing R490,000 for “back pay” in January 2020.
It’s just gone noon on Thursday and there have been no mails from Cricket SA Media today.
As I type this for my early deadline, the IB is having a news conference to update on all Cricket SA board matters. There will, no doubt, be a statement out later today from that presser. Then, perhaps, Cricket SA Media will send something a little later from the MC. It’ sa mess, a disgraceful mess. And, stuck in the middle, is Cricket SA Media, spinning and spinning.
● McCallum is a former sports editor who has covered the Olympic Games as well as Rugby, Cricket and Football World Cups.