The embattled Cricket SA (CSA) board is ‘doing a good job and is going nowhere’ – and calls for it to be dissolved are ‘nonsense’, according to Eastern Province Cricket president Donovan May. The applicable word here is hubris.
May and the rest of the CSA board apparently enjoy majority support from the powerful Members’ Forum, which comprises the 12 Affiliate Presidents, the President and Vice-President of CSA.
The CSA also called for unity and said it had undertaken ‘a process of renewal’. Sounds eerily familiar.
According to TimesLIVE the majority of provincial unions confirmed their support for the board to continue; many of the union presidents, however, preferred not to be quoted for reasons of sensitivity.
In terms of CSA’s Memorandum of Incorporation, the Board has seven non-independent directors (the Presidents of the provincial affiliates) and five independent directors, who have no involvement in cricket.
May, a non-independent director, emphasised that the 14-member Forum had thrown its weight behind chairman Chris Nenzani and the board.
‘I am in full support of the board. I find nothing wrong with the board at all and I actually think that they have been doing a good job,’ May told TimesLIVE.
‘The board is united and the members’ council has given us the green light, as you heard the president say at our AGM at the weekend. It is the media which is driving this thing [calls for the removal of the board]. It is the media that is crucifying us.’
On 12 December, the next day, the ‘united board’ seemed a lot less united: Jack Madiseng, president of the Central Gauteng Lions (CGL), resigned from the board. Madiseng said: ‘Unfortunately moral and principle circumstances forced me to consider this action after witnessing the Board refusing to take accountability and stepping down at the members’ council meeting held on 6 December 2019.’
The CGL called for the entire CSA board to resign with immediate effect and that an interim board be installed, that new, immediate senior management be appointed and that an immediate forensic investigation into CSA affairs be undertaken. The significance of Madiseng’s resignation is that he is the first non-independent director to resign, a breach in the Members’ Forum’s ranks.
On 9 December, the SA Cricketers’ Association (Saca), which has been in dispute with CSA for almost a year, released a second statement in four days, calling for the immediate resignation of the CSA board.
Tony Irish, outgoing chief of the SACA, tweeted: ‘Appalled that the president and Board of CSA have taken no responsibility for cricket’s biggest crisis. Now clinging to power.’
May said that ‘Saca have no right to call for the removal of the CSA board. The only people or body that can remove the CSA board is the members’ council, not the public and certainly not the media.’
Madiseng’s resignation followed those of independent directors Iqbal Khan, Shirley Zinn and Dawn Mokhobo. The two remaining independent directors are Professor Steve Cornelius and Marius Schoeman. The remaining non-independent directors are Chris Nenzani (chairman), Beresford Williams (Western Cape) , Zola Thamae (Free State), Tebogo Siko (Northerns), Donovan May (WP) and Angelo Carolissen (Boland).
Cornelius is head of the Department of Private Law and Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Law at the University of Pretoria. Nothing could be found about Schoeman.
Interestingly, in 2018 Cornelius resigned from the International Association of Athletics Federations’ Disciplinary Tribunal over a newly introduced policy that seeks to ‘regulate’ naturally elevated levels of testosterone in women competing in select events.
May, however, may want to be little less self-righteous. In April 2019, some disgruntled cricket clubs handed over a petition to Eastern Province Cricket calling for his resignation as its president.
The #SaveEPCricket campaign comprised 27 of the 76 clubs in the Nelson Mandela Bay and Sarah Baartman areas. Its call came after May was appointed as a non-independent director of CSA earlier in 2019. A list of about 35 grievances was also submitted.
These included the daily running of the EP Cricket Board, and issues relating to employees, procurement and development, among others. ‘We are not asking for something sinister. We are saying we don’t have any confidence in you, we would like to have new blood…We have no vision as a company, the last time we had that was in 2005, it’s almost 14 years later, it’s absurd,’ said Motherwell CC president Sipho Nondlwana.
According to May, a resolution to have him stand down didn’t get the 75% majority vote needed. So he remained president of EP Cricket and a director of CSA.
Other than a loss of R200 million for the 2018/19 financial year, CSA’s Test sponsor of many years, Standard Bank, announced that it would not be renewing its sponsorship after April 2020. Only after that was CEO Thabang Moroe suspended. Since then, neither the chairman nor the remaining seven directors have seen it necessary to go, despite calls for them to do so.
Jacques Faul, the highly respected CEO of Northerns and Titans, has become the acting CEO of CSA, Graeme Smith agreed to become CSA’s director of cricket for three months, and former Proteas wicketkeeper, Dave Richardson, may possibly assist Faul. Mark Boucher, former Proteas wicketkeeper, has just been announced as coach to the Proteas for the England tour.
Former Proteas bowler Pat Symox believes the three (Faul, Smith and Richardson) are ‘stupid’ to take up these roles because the board will still be calling the shots. Maybe not – maybe we’ll see the board’s hubris turn into our schadenfreude.
Clearly the board cares nothing for the players and less than nothing for the cricket-loving public. However, the one thing they do care about is money. And, as the Daily Friend reported at the weekend, sponsor Momentum has given the CSA until the end of April to meet demands for changes in the game’s national management.
Momentum currently sponsors one-day cricket, including the Proteas’ One-Day Internationals and the domestic One-Day Cup; the Momentum National Club Championship, and the official Momentum schools weeks for the U13, U15 and U17 age groups.
The company wants the resignation of the CSA board (alternatively the resignation of the current president and vice-president); an independent forensic audit of the financial affairs of CSA, including management of expense accounts; a four-year ‘going concern assessment’ by independent auditors; the appointment of a ‘lead independent director to the CSA Board with relevant experience’; the appointment of an independent director to the CSA Board ‘with on-field cricket experience’; and the active engagement with South African Cricketers’ Association ‘with a view to positively resolving outstanding issues of dispute (given that they are a critical stakeholder in the game)’.
Momentum said it hoped ‘CSA will act decisively and with transparency so that cricket in South Africa can move forward’.
CSA is a microcosm of the rot of corruption, mismanagement and arrogance that is evident in every aspect of political life. Clearly only money talks – and it’s easier to withdraw sponsorship than it is to withhold taxes.
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