Cricket SA in a state of civil war after Members' Council defies sports minister

Cricket South Africa’s Members' Council, the sport’s highest decision-making body, has entered into a state of brinkmanship with Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa after effectively sacking the interim CSA board. South African cricket is in a state of civil war. 

“Cricket South Africa’s Members' Council today announced that it will not be appointing the interim board,” CSA said in a statement on Thursday.  

“Following various engagements and a meeting between the Members' Council, the proposed interim board of CSA, Minister Nathi Mthethwa, and members of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, the Members' Council have written to the Minister to raise material concerns about the proposed interim board. 

“Matters include several unresolved issues; overstepping and disregarding agreed upon duties, responsibilities and lines of accountability; and ultimately, a breakdown in the relationship between the Members' Council and the proposed interim board.” 

In other words, the Members' Council did not like the type of uncomfortable questions and probing the interim board undertook. Which is precisely what it was intended to do. 

On 30 October Mthethwa appointed a new interim board to steer CSA out of a morass of problems after a series of shambolic governance issues. The nine-person board includes former CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat, whose appearance has also upset the Members' Council, although it raised no formal concerns when he was named. 

The Members' Council has clearly spent the past two weeks plotting a way out of the situation.

It has effectively defied the country’s minister of sport despite being integral to the massive problems CSA faces, having stood by and allowed the previous CSA board to run the sport aground. If it wasn’t clear before, it is abundantly clear now that the so-called leadership of CSA is only interested in self-preservation. 

Insiders have told Daily Maverick that the Members' Council has been shaken by the speed and aggressiveness with which the interim board, chaired by respected Judge Zak Yacoob, has set about digging into the rot. 

The fact that up to seven of the Members' Council were also part of the previous board that was effectively sacked by Mthethwa was always going to lead to problems. 

The sport is tearing itself apart and the people supposedly elected to protect it have only shown an appetite to protect their positions. The Members' Council is hiding behind processes and legalities as justification to oust the interim board. The end result is unlikely to benefit the game in any way and the next move now belongs to Mthethwa. 

In a ludicrous situation, which would be laughable if it weren’t so dire, the interim board has committed to fulfilling the obligations laid out by the minister while the Members' Council is blocking it from doing so. 

Only one person can play referee, and that is the sports minister. His only remaining card is suspending CSA as the organisation representing South African cricket, which will have massive ramifications with the International Cricket Council (ICC). 

Interim board commits to fulfilling its mandate 

Yacoob, despite the hostile stance from CSA, remained measured, thoughtful and firm in his response to the crisis. And make no mistake, in a year of crises for CSA, this is the biggest. The interim board will not step down. 

“We start by saying that our understanding of the position is very different from what is said in the letter to be the understanding of the Members' Council,” Yacoob said in a statement. 

“Indeed, we may say at the outset, that the ‘reasons’ as communicated to us appear to be self-serving, opportunistic, misleading and if we may say so, very short-sighted as far as the interests of cricket in South Africa is concerned. 

“Technicalities aside, we were publicly mandated by the minister to serve as an independent interim board to resolve well-aired difficulties faced by CSA over the years. And, over the next three months to try and ensure an Annual General Meeting by the end of that time so that an independent, untainted board would take CSA forward with integrity.  

“We understood that there was an agreement between the Minister and the Members' Council on exactly who was to be appointed and the Members' Council undertook to formalise the appointment so that the interim independent board would have the necessary authority and power to clean up cricket in South Africa. 

“The Members' Council, acting mainly through its acting-President [Rihan Richards] has adopted the strategy to pretend to cooperate in the process but ensured that every effort was made to obstruct our work. 

“It is for this reason and only for this reason that the interim board has not been appointed. The reasons given have no substance and do not begin to stand scrutiny. These so-called reasons have been carefully crafted.” 

The Members' Council believes that the interim board is accountable to it, which is something Yacoob disputes. There was also unhappiness from CSA’s executive, which carries out the day-to-day running of the organisation, that the interim board was directing operations. It’s another grievance Yacoob dismissed. 

“Each of these entities have their own powers and responsibilities in terms of the relevant enabling provisions,” Yacoob said. 

“It occurs to us that the real reason is to prevent us from doing our work independently and outside the Members' Council control. We refuse to subject ourselves to any control and sacrifice our independence in the performance of our duties and in the interests of cricket. 

“The Members' Council should also remember that the executive is accountable to the board if the board had been appointed and not the other way round. 

“We assumed that the Members' Council would act honourably and confirm our appointment. We therefore acted as the board and gave instructions to the executive.

“The executive baulked at this because they were too accustomed to doing what they wanted to do without any accountability. They apparently complained and the Members' Council was somehow, morally wrongly persuaded to take up their cudgels in the letter under reply, in support of the executive for no justifiable reason. 

“We understand that you have made it more difficult (as you clearly intended to do) for us to carry out our public mandate which we had accepted and to which we remain committed. 

“We will continue to act in the public interest to carry out our mandate. We reject any instruction from you as superfluous and will approach the media at our discretion in the public interest and in the interests of SA Cricket as distinct from the narrow interest of some executive member or any other entity.” 

Over to you, Minister Mthethwa. DM