Cricket bosses under heavy fire
It is the only way forward for CSA and the South African players
CRICKET South Africa’s two most senior administrators are facing increasing calls to resign even before Saturday’s emergency meeting of the organisation’s board of directors.
Sponsors and high-profile former administrators have lent their voices to the clarion call for CSA president Chris Nenzani and the organisation’s chief executive Thabang Moroe to resign.
The pair were locked in a meeting yesterday afternoon, while all around them more drama unfolded – including the resignation of another director.
On Thursday, the Willowton Group, which through its brand Sunfoil was once a major sponsor of Cricket SA and remains a backer at grassroots level, stated emphatically that the pair had to resign immediately as part of far-reaching measures to clean up the game.
Furthermore, the Willowton Group stated, in what it described as “immediate actions”, that Cricket SA had to reappoint Corrie van Zyl, Clive Eksteen and Nassei Appiah, who were all suspended for what was described as dereliction of their duties.
It sought 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 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 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; “selective communication with Saca (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 follows that of Shirley Zinn, who jumped ship on Tuesday.
In a further sign of the declining standards of governance at CSA, another board member, Jack Madiseng, slammed Nenzani and CSA’s vice-president Beresford Williams for their failure to support Moroe as CSA has 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 chief executive to independently make all decisions, which is wrong,” wrote Madiseng in a letter sent to Nenzani and Williams last week.
“Based on the above, the poor chief executive 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.”
Madiseng and Moroe have had a very tight relationship since working together at Central Gauteng Cricket Board. A couple of former directors at Gauteng cricket, Fagmeedah Petersen-Cook and David Terbrugge, took to social media yesterday to slam Madiseng, describing him as opportunistic.
“Jack Madiseng positioning himself for a CSA presidency? As guilty as all the non-independents in the patronage network. I resigned as a lead independent at Gauteng because of his behaviour,” Petersen-Cook tweeted.
Terbrugge, who played seven Tests for the Proteas, supported her, saying: “Madiseng is now positioning himself as saviour of Cricket in SA. He is (a) major part of the problem. Poacher turned gamekeeper!”
Moroe has come under more pressure from some eminent ex-players and administrators, most notably Ali Bacher and Vince van der Bijl, who have called on him to resign.
“HOW did it get to this?” “Where do we go from here?” Those are the two questions I’ve been asked the most in what has been the most remarkable few days of covering cricket that I have ever experienced.
How it got to this point is Cricket South Africa’s administrators not paying heed to the recommendations contained in Judge Chris Nicholson’s report in 2012.
Remember, Nicholson chaired a commission of inquiry into the “bonus scandal” when former Cricket SA chief executive Gerald Majola illegitimately paid himself some extra money while the board looked the other way.
As part of his remedies for CSA’s administrative problems, Judge Nicholson recommended a smaller board dominated by independent directors.
Then the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee – that bastion of transparent and modern administrative excellence – cried foul, saying that was not how sport is run.
It was convenient for cricket’s provincial presidents to listen, so they decided to pick seven nonindependent and five independent directors for their board, thus ignoring Nicholson.
“While Sascoc’s reasons for geopolitical representation on the Boards of all sports organisations are understood, the application thereof to governance structures of major professional sports codes is questionable,” said Dr Willie Basson in February 2013 as he stepped down as CSA’s interim president.
Then he added, ominously given what is taking place right now with CSA: “If enforced without careful consideration of the implications thereof, much of what has been gained from the Nicholson process could be negated.”
And here we are, with a board that, as CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe admitted in August, allowed him to take on more of its responsibilities. He has destroyed CSA’s relationship with the players, utterly stuffed up the post-World Cup repair that the Proteas desperately needed, gotten CSA involved in two court cases
– one of which they lost – failed to attract new sponsors, angered those sponsors that still support cricket, overseen a T20 league that is haemorrhaging cash, banned journalists, and completely lost the respect of the South African public.
So, where to from here? Well, as I’ve written, more than once, Moroe simply has to leave CSA.
If he doesn’t resign, he should be fired. CSA president Chris Nenzani can join him, and so should board member Jack Madiseng a close ally of Moroe and president of Gauteng cricket. In that latter position, Madiseng has overseen bitter political in-fighting in the province; he is no unifier.
Some kind of temporary leadership needs to be put in place – an independent panel to oversee affairs and perhaps someone like Northerns Cricket Union CEO Jacques Faul, who also did a similar rescue job in 2012, to act as CSA’s chief executive for a few months.
In the meanwhile, a complete administrative clean-out needs to take place.
Graeme Smith needs to be made Director of Cricket and he has to be given the freedom and support to fix the broken structures around the Proteas.
In the long term, Smith – hopefully with assistance from leading experts from within cricket but importantly, other sectors too – can create a sustainable domestic structure that from junior level upwards, including the women’s game, can help to make the South African team a strong one again.
Ultimately it is that which is important. A competitive and successful Proteas team is what the public wants. It is CSA’s job to ensure that is created. This current lot of leadership have failed in that regard.