Is Corrie van Zyl back at CSA? It depends on who you ask

Is Corrie van Zyl back at work at Cricket South Africa? That depends on who you ask.

In an open letter penned by former lead independent board director and former CSA president Norman Arendse, the respected advocate said Van Zyl, who represented the national team in two ODIs, has been reinstated at CSA.

TimesLIVE understands that Van Zyl was found guilty of bringing the company into disrepute and has been put on a final warning.

Van Zyl, who was the acting director of cricket at the time of his suspension, was one of three CSA staff members who were suspended for alleged dereliction of duty over the non-payment of commercial rights fees for the 2018 Mzansi Super League (MSL).

COO Naasei Appiah and sponsor and sales head Clive Eksteen were also suspended because of the non-payment of an agreed contract fee of R2.4m that CSA were supposed to pay the South African Cricketer’s Association (Saca).

The payment wasn’t made in time and Saca lodged a dispute with CSA over the unpaid amount.

Eksteen and Appiah’s disciplinary proceedings are nearing an end but Van Zyl did not want to comment.

“I don’t have anything to say and I don’t have a comment,” Van Zyl said.

CSA’s spokesperson Thami Mthembu said the case against Van Zyl is continuing and he hasn’t returned to work.

“The case against Corrie van Zyl is ongoing and it hasn’t been concluded. If the case is ongoing, then it’s not possible for him to be at work,” Mthembu said.

The trio’s suspension fractured what was an already tense relationship with CSA.

At the time, Saca had taken CSA to court in an attempt to get clarity on the then-mooted changes to the domestic system that were going to see the six franchises disbanded for a return to the 12-team affiliate system.

CSA have canned that move and they’ve smoothed their relationship with the players’ association.

Through their former CEO Tony Irish, Saca couldn’t understand why Van Zyl, Appiah and Eksteen were suspended for a matter that didn’t fall within their jurisdiction.

Saca’s new CEO Andrew Breetzke said they were happy for Van Zyl to return — if indeed he had returned to work — and still couldn’t understand why he was suspended.

“We were always surprised that action had been taken against Corrie for the 2018 MSL issue. He did everything he could to resolve that payment and we didn’t regard him as the obstacle to the payment,” Breetzke said.

“We’re not surprised that he’s effectively being reinstated. He was instrumental in trying to get the payment across the line.

“It’s good news for Corrie, but his suspension didn’t make sense to us because he had nothing to do with the non-payment of that money.”