Attempt to muzzle journos won’t work

The problem with shooting the messenger – especially if your aim is as bad as that of the mandarins who run Cricket South Africa (CSA) – is that you run the risk of hitting your own foot. That happened yesterday with what appears to be a clumsy attempt to censor five cricket journalists – including The Citizen’s Ken Borland – who had been reporting on the sad state of affairs at the umbrella body.

The journos – Borland, Stuart Hess of Independent, freelancer Neil Manthorp, Telford Vice of Times Media and Firdos Moonda of Cricinfo – were told their accreditation had been revoked. That it was not an error was confirmed when at least three of them were refused access to cricket grounds in Cape Town and Joburg to cover the Mzansi Super League matches.

Later, after a row erupted on social media and on news stations and websites, the journos were informed that their “applications” for accreditation had been “approved”… implying that they were making a mountain out of a normal administrative molehill.

They were not.

This was an attempt to silence them and intimidate other cricket writers into only writing “puff” pieces about CSA. You, CSA, are in deep trouble … but this won’t stop us writing about it.