DE Africa’s visit to the Caribbean could be in jeopardy with Cricket South Africa’s highest authority (CSA) depending on their agreement to adopt a new constitution.
West Indies is expected to host them for two Tests and five T20Is in June, but by then the Proteas may not be the country’s officially recognized team.
A government statement on Sunday said sports minister Nathi Mthethwa had been “left .. with no further option but to exercise his rights in terms of section 13 (5) of the Sports Act”. That law allows Mthethwa to remove federations from the privilege of calling their teams nationals and ceasing funding.
On April 10 a statement from CSA said that “the majority of the council is members [had decided to] accept the principle of an independent majority board led by an independent chair ”. At a special online meeting on Saturday the council, which included 14 provincial presidents and CSA associates, refused to do what it had said it would: it voted against the proposal.
That means cricket in South Africa remains structurally unfounded. Seven of the 12 places on the CSA board are reserved for the members council, leaving the door open for cronyism and the kind of bad governance that has led to cricket losing major sponsors and damaging its relationships with broadcasters.
An interim board, set up with government support and appointed after the elected board full of council members was persuaded to resign, has been in place since November. The main mandate of the new board is to repair a defective CSA memorandum of incorporation. On April 10 that seemed about to be achieved. On Saturday the glimmer of hope was shattered.
Council member Donovan May – a dysfunctional elected board member who was pushed out of office – proposed that Barry Hendricks, president of the South African Confederation of Sport and Olympics (SASCOC) Committee be allowed to address the meeting despite the mere presence of Hendricks as an observer.
Hendricks insisted that the new MOI be sent to SASOC “for approval before it is approved”, and threatened to “suspend, fine and terminate the CSA’s membership” if that did not happen. SASCOC, which acts as an interface between sport and government, itself suffers from reputational damage caused by financial scandals, corruption, sexual harassment and governance. But he has the authority to do what Hendricks said he could.
Thus the hand of Mthethwa is forced. The statement on Sunday spoke of his “disappointment at the failure of CSA representatives to adopt the revised MOI”. Clearly, the government sees members’ advice as the rotten apple in the barrel: “The revised MOI … was an agreement between the council of CSA members and the temporary board. Accordingly, any failure to confirm such an agreement made by a duly authorized member council representative can only be interpreted in good faith. “Mthethwa” will take the necessary steps to exercise its rights in law prescriptions next week “.
If it decides that CSA teams are no longer the national sides of the country, CSA could file a complaint of interference with the ICC. If the ICC agreed, it could suspend CSA membership. Mthethwa then looks like the bad guy and the council would have members bullets to get him back up. But Mthethwa has previously explained his actions to the ICC, which has been silent on the matter.
That is tantamount to many, I think, to the ICC’s tacit approval of what Mthethwa has done so far. And the ICC has enough precedent of state involvement in cricket in Pakistan and India to cover itself and justify supporting Mthethwa.
The members’ council has a clear vested interest – which is also an obvious conflict of interest – in continuing to make its own rules and set its own homework. He is famous for resorting to stand-up tactics to cling to power and his traps. In an echo of what happened on Saturday, in August 2012 CSA promised to “implement the letter and spirit of the recommendations contained in the Nicholson report”. That hasn’t happened yet, not least because Nicholson is calling for a majority independent board.
Mthethwa and the ICC are the only figures in this saga who can castrate members’ advice, which must be done in order for the game to emerge from years of growing ruin. It’s time to see who blinks first. (Cricbuzz)