Cricket South Africa has hit the nadir with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) asking its office-bearers to step aside. However, it doesn’t impact the participation of South African players international games.
Why was Cricket South Africa’s board and executive asked to step aside?
SASCOC acting chief executive Ravi Govender told Reuters that the radical step was taken to remove the negativity and governance issues around CSA, “so that in future they can be more effective and efficient in their mandate.”
Ever since Chris Nenzani took over as board president, there has been administrative chaos and financial instability. He was allegedly dictatorial, a reason CSA has had four CEOs in the last three years (Haroon Lorgat, Thabang Moroe, Jacques Faul and Kugandrie Govender). Daily Maverick had reported that there was no financial accountability, Nenzani’s leadership was causing racial divisions in the squad and leadership collapse. “CSA is not only culpable when it comes to financial mismanagement, which affects all aspects of the business, but Nenzani apparently drove a wedge between CSA and players,” a report read.
The website iol.co.za wrote: “Graeme Smith, appointed as the full-time Director of Cricket, described a “cancer” within the organisation when describing its administrative leadership, something Nenzani must bear a lot of responsibility for.” His dispensation fell out with players, sponsors, and the players’ organisation. The board also failed to launch its ambitious T20 Global League. Under mounting pressure, the president had to resign a few weeks ago, before completing his term.
Last week, 30 leading players from the men’s and women’s national teams signed an acerbic letter criticising the board for postponing CSA’s annual general meeting that had been scheduled for September 5. The SASCOC felt it was time to stop the rot.
The SASCOC Board… resolved that in order for it to facilitate the work of the task team, the CSA Board and those senior executives who serve ex-officio on the board are directed to step aside from the administration of CSA on full pay pending the outcome of the task team’s investigation,” SASCOC said in its letter.
It also explained the reasons for the inquest. “There has been a tremendous amount of negativity publicity relating to the administration of cricket in South Africa and in particular various concerns having been raised with regard to the functionality of the board and senior management of cricket,” the order read.
“We do not agree with SASCOC’s reasons for interventions and we will continue to engage with them as we do with our other major stakeholders such as the ICC, our players and our sponsors. There is no takeover, no task team and no directive from the Government in this regard. CSA is committed to resolving the matter with SASCOC as soon as possible so that our relationship with them is stabilised to make sure the game of cricket is protected as well as the interests of our sponsors, partners, players, staff and broader stakeholders,” Cricket South Africa said in a statement.
