CSA dodges another bullet
CONCERN: CSA HOLD MEETING WITH MAJOR SPONSOR
CEO Maroe issues an apology to journos whose accreditation was revoked.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) staved off a nasty wolf at its door yesterday after Standard Bank reaffirmed its sponsorship commitment to the embattled federation.
The bank, which helps bankroll the Proteas and some development projects, had called for an urgent meeting with the governing body late on Monday afternoon in “the wake of governance and conduct media reports which have brought the name of cricket into disrepute”.
While corporate governance at CSA has been in the spotlight for some time, relevant stakeholders were pushed into action after five journalists – including The
Citizen’s Ken Borland – had their accreditation to stadium events revoked on the basis that they contributed to, as CSA noted in an official statement, “unmediated attacks” on the federation.
The move was widely condemned.
However, following a “productive meeting” between CSA and one of its few major sponsors, Standard Bank proclaimed that it’s “reasonably satisfied” with how “remedial actions” will take place to “address stakeholders’ concerns”.
That said, the organisation had hardly been happy up to that point, expressing “its displeasure at the unsatisfactory manner in which CSA had engaged some of its stakeholders on the reported governance issues”.
“As a major sponsor of cricket in South Africa, we believe that we should have been afforded the courtesy to be kept abreast of these developments within CSA, and not to hear about them from the media in the unfortunate manner that we did,” said Thulani Sibeko, Standard Bank Group chief marketing officer.
He added that the bank “acknowledged” CSA’s mission to “urgently implement” its turnaround strategy in terms of the sport’s image and reputation.
But the federation’s efforts in that regard suffered a meaty blow with the resignation of Prof Shirley Zinn. The well-known business director was one of the independent non-executive directors on CSA’s board, the type of impartial influence critics pleaded for.
Meanwhile, in a letter sent to South African National Editors’ Forum executive director Kate Skinner yesterday, CSA CEO Thabang Moroe took full responsibility for the actions of the organisation.
“I take full responsibility for what transpired and that I don’t think such a drastic measure was necessary! With hindsight being the perfect vision one can easily think to have spared a few minutes in my day to try and personally get hold of the journalists and assess their position myself,” Moroe said in the letter.