New cricket boss got hooked via TV ad
Pholetsi Moseki readily admits he was never the biggest cricket fan, preferring to play and follow football, particularly his beloved Kaizer Chiefs.
In another life he also wouldn’t have minded being an astronomer, which would have allowed him to figure out the size of the universe – something that’s always interested him.
As it is, Moseki is a chartered accountant. And he’s now also the chief executive officer of Cricket South Africa (CSA). He was appointed permanently this week after serving in an acting role for the past two years. It’s a position he never, in his wildest dreams, thought he would fill.
“It’s weird how this came about,” said Moseki. “As a child I played football in the streets of Soweto in the ’80s and ’90s and didn’t even know about cricket. I loved Chiefs then and I still do now, but they’ve broken my heart too many times. Now I’m all about cricket.”
He said it was a television advertisement of kids playing cricket in the street and a mom calling them inside when the lights come on that got him interested in the game. “The kids answer the mom back, saying something about it being a day/night game. I loved it.
“When I’d finished high school and was at home during the holidays, around 1994, 1995, I got hooked on Test cricket because it gave me something to do. I remember my cousin visiting from KwaZulu-Natal and he was a big cricket fan and explained the whole game to me. That’s how I fell in love with it.”
Moseki, 45, remembers those days fondly. “South Africa had only been back in the international game for a while and there was a lot of excitement about it. I enjoyed watching Daryl Cullinan, he was a bit full of nonsense, Gary Kirsten was the gentleman.
“Shaun Pollock was all class, and then much later Makhaya Ntini was the first real black superstar and that resonated with me. And Graeme Smith always impressed me and Hashim Amla, too. Internationally, I loved watching Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.”
But how did a passionate football fan and growing cricket supporter end up being a chartered accountant? “I have to go back to my first two years at high school in Soweto.
“Those were chaotic times in this country. Some teachers just weren’t interested in working, but for some reason my accounting teacher was at school every day and she was so passionate about the subject. She was young, brilliant and dedicated and I fell in love with accounting.”
Moseki later moved from Soweto to a city centre school and then went to Wits. “But that didn’t work out because I was still playful at that time” and he finally graduated from Unisa. He did his articles at Deutsche Bank. In July 2019 he joined CSA as chief financial officer. “It was just before the storm hit the organisation,” he said.
Asked if running CSA had crossed his mind when he joined three years ago, he said: “No, never. In another life I think I’d have chosen astronomy or architecture. I love buildings and I find the universe fascinating. Those are the things that really interest me.”
But figures and finances it is for Moseki now that he is entrusted with steering the CSA ship, hopefully into much calmer waters. –