CSA’S acting president steps down
JOHANNESBURG: Acting Cricket SA (CSA) president AK Khan has resigned.
“I think it’s time for change and for new leadership,” he said last night.
“I’m going back to grassroots cricket, and I hope to be able to contribute again at club level.”
Khan said he announced his resignation at a CSA management committee meeting in Joburg.
His resignation comes three days before a CSA board meeting, at which its provincial presidents are expected to decide the fate of CSA CEO Gerald Majola.
Khan said he hoped new leaders would help cricket’s governing body to find its feet after two years of negative media coverage and a struggle to find sponsorships.
“New people will have fresh ideas,” he said. “I am confident the game will overcome this one negative aspect.”
Earlier yesterday, Dennis Cruywagen, who called himself a close associate of the CEO, said in a statement that Majola would ask the management committee for a threemonth leave of absence.
Majola has been at the centre of a long-running bonus saga after he and 39 other members of CSA staff received payments for hosting the 2009 Indian Premier League.
An inquiry, led by retired judge Chris Nicholson, recommended to Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula last week that Majola be suspended for 180 days, pending the conclusion of a disciplinary hearing, and repay the R1.75 million bonus he had received.
Last year, a KPMG report found that Majola may have breached the Companies Act at least four times after he failed to clear the bonuses through the CSA’S remuneration committee.
He was reprimanded twice but was ultimately cleared.
After reading the report released by the Nicholson inquiry, Khan said on Tuesday that the CSA board had not taken sides throughout the bonus saga.
“The board has always backed cricket and not any individual,” he said.
“I have studied that part of the report very carefully and I think it is a bit unfair and untrue to say that there was a cover-up.”
Meanwhile, Majola is said to have questioned Nicholson’s impartiality.
Cruywagen said in a statement yesterday that Majola suspected “he was the victim of a hatchet job”.
There was also concern over the credibility of Nicholson’s findings.
This followed a scathing report released by the ministerial inquiry, headed by Nicholson, into the CSA’S ongoing bonus scandal.
Cruywagen said Majola would ask for a three-month leave of absence at the management committee meeting.
“This was so that he can prepare himself to defend his integrity, reputation and career,” Cruywagen said.
He added it would be almost impossible for CSA, which had acquitted Majola, to now call him to a disciplinary hearing.