Knives out for CSA’s two most senior administrators
CRICKET SA’s (CSA) two most senior administrators are facing mounting calls to resign even before tomorrow’s emergency meeting of the its board of directors.
Sponsors and high-profile former administrators have lent their voices to the call for CSA president Chris Nenzani and chief executive Thabang Moroe, to resign.
The pair were locked in a meeting yesterday afternoon as around them more drama unfolded including the resignation of another independent director, and a close ally of Moroe issuing a stinging rebuke of Nenzani and CSA vice-president Beresford Williams over their lack of support for Moroe.
Yesterday, the Willowton Group, which through its brand Sunfoil, and
was once a major CSA sponsor, and one which remained a backer at grass roots level, stated emphatically that the pair had to resign immediately as part of far-reaching measures to clean up the game.
Furthermore, the group stated, in what it described as “immediate actions”, the CSA had to reappoint Corrie van Zyl, Clive Eksteen and Nassei Appiah, who were all suspended for alleged dereliction of duties.
It also demanded the reappointment of independent directors Shirley Zinn and Mohammed Iqbal Khan, who resigned from their positions on the board this week, the appointment of a lead director, a position left vacant since Norman Arendse stepped down last year and an independent audit review of the whole organisation.
In announcing his resignation on Wednesday night, Khan who had served on the board for six years and was chairperson of the CSA’s financial and commercial committee, said his position had become “untenable”.
“The criticism in the media, and by the public who love and support cricket, has reached such a crescendo, that I can no longer be deaf to the cries for immediate changes at the CSA board level,” Khan wrote in a letter addressed to Nenzani.
Khan made some startling claims in his resignation letter, citing widespread abuse of the office credit card, a “toxic atmosphere” that had led to several resignations.
Also mentioned was “a selective communication with Saca (the SA Cricketers’ Association) and a failure to engage with them in terms of the CSA collective agreement,” the mishandling of the director of cricket issue, the revoking of media accreditation of five journalists, hastily arranging a media conference on Tuesday and then cancelling it, and bringing Cricket SA into disrepute.
Khan’s resignation followed that of Zinn’s on Tuesday.
In a further sign of the declining standards of governance at the CSA, another board member, Jack Madiseng, slammed Nenzani and Williams for their failure to support Moroe as CSA had descended into crisis. Citing the recent arbitration finding in favour of the Western Province Cricket Association as one example, Madiseng had been hung out to dry by the two senior administrators.
“Our brand is in a mess and your lack/poor leadership has misled the public to think that we, as the board, have fully empowered the CEO to independently make all decisions, which is wrong,” wrote Madiseng in a letter sent to Nenzani and Williams last week.
“…the poor CEO has been getting all the ‘klaps and punches’ from the media and the public without the presence of the CSA leadership, which is both of you.”
Moroe has also come under pressure from former eminent players and administrators, most notably, Ali Bacher and Vince van der Bijl, who have called on him to resign.
This morning, the players’ union, Saca, will hold an executive meeting where a possible strike will be discussed. “Things have now reached a stage where we must ask what Saca and the players are expected to do when the leadership of CSA, both operationally and on its board, continues to ignore our legitimate concerns and refuses to acknowledge the players as key stakeholder,” the body’s chief executive Tony Irish said this week.
CSA’s remaining 10 directors will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow.
“I can no longer be deaf to the cries for immediate changes
Mohammed Iqbal Khan FORMER CSA BOARD DIRECTOR