Beresford Williams (Gallo)
- Cricket South Africa has rejected Sascoc’s instruction to sideline the board and executive leadership.
- CSA released a statement at 01:00 on Friday, confirming that it did not agree with the resolutions reached by Sascoc president Aleck Skhosana.
- CSA is seeking legal advice on how to move forward, while the role of the ICC is a major concern.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) says it “does not agree” with the the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee’s (Sascoc) instruction that the entire board and executive leadership be sidelined.
In what is the most potentially damaging development to have rocked CSA since December last year, Sascoc on Thursday released a letter signed by acting president Aleck Skhosana, directing the board and the senior management of CSA – including acting CEO Kugandrie Govender – be “sidelined”.
Sascoc, citing the administrative troubles that have manifested at CSA over the last 10 months, said it would implement a task team that would seek to engage with the CSA board and the members’ council in an effort to restore cricket to health.
“The Sascoc board further resolved that in order to facilitate the work of the task team, the CSA board and those senior executives who serve ex-officio on the board (the company secretary, the Acting CEO, the CFO and the COO) are directed to step aside from the administration of CSA on full pay pending the outcome of the task team’s investigations,” a letter from Sascoc’s acting president, Aleck Skhosana, read.
One concern, obviously, is that Sascoc has been shrouded in its own well-documented administrative trouble for years and that hardly inspires confidence that CSA will be in safer hands now.
The major concern, though, is that government intervention through Sascoc could be viewed as problematic by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and, in a worst case scenario, that could result in CSA being excluded from major ICC events and the Future Tours Programme (FTP).
The ICC’s constitution forbids government interference in its member associations.
It makes the next few hours, days and weeks critical for CSA, and the organisation released a statement at 01:00 on Friday morning acknowledging receipt of the Sascoc letter, but rejecting the direction to sideline the administration.
“CSA, including its Members’ Council, does not agree with the resolution taken by Sascoc and has not had the opportunity to engage with Sascoc on various issues raised in the communication,” the statement read.
“In addition, CSA is taking legal advice regarding the basis on which Sascoc has sought to intervene in the business affairs of CSA. CSA does, however, commit to engaging further with Sascoc to understand its position and to find common ground with it in the best interests of cricket.
“The Members’ Council and the Directors of the Board of CSA will hold a joint workshop this weekend to discuss critical matters.”
Another burning issue remains the Fundudzi forensic report, which Sascoc says it still has not seen.
The report was used to dismiss former CEO Thabang Moroe, initially suspended in December 2019, from the organisation last month but its contents have not been released since.
