EXCLUSIVE | Drama as Cricket SA Members' Council dismisses interim board
The chaos at Cricket South Africa (CSA) escalated on Thursday after the Members' Council‚ the organisation’s highest decision-making body, made up of provincial presidents‚ fired the interim board with immediate effect for an apparent breakdown of trust.
TimesLIVE can reveal that the Members' Council met this week and resolved to dismiss the interim board. The members have already communicated their decision to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa‚ the parliamentary portfolio committee and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc).
The CSA provincial bosses accuse the interim board of running amok and undermining them‚ according to several sources who spoke to TimesLIVE.
The Members' Council was also rubbed up the wrong way when members found out that the interim board allegedly changed the reporting lines and started to report directly to the minister and not to them as the supreme body.
The council grew increasingly frustrated with the interim board’s conduct but matters came to a head when the temporary leadership allegedly started toying with the idea of appointing Haroon Lorgat as acting CEO and Jacques Faul as company secretary.
The interim board was announced and appointed by Mthethwa last month and the body immediately had its work cut out for it in its mandate to restore stakeholder and public confidence in the administration of the game.
Lorgat is a former International Cricket Council (ICC) and CSA CEO and came back to the local organisation along with eight other interim board members who were announced by the minister.
The other interim board members are Omphile Ramela‚ Judith February‚ Professor Andre Odendaal‚ Dr Stavros Nicolaou‚ Xolani Vonya‚ Andile Mbatha and Caroline Mampuru, with retired justice Zak Yacoob as the chairperson.
TimesLIVE understands that newly elected Sascoc president Barry Hendricks has received and acknowledged the letter from the CSA Members' Council dismissing the interim board.
Hendricks confirmed on Thursday that he had received a letter from the council but declined to confirm that the letter communicated the immediate dismissal of the interim board.
“I was copied in a letter [from the CSA Members' Council] that was sent to the minister‚” he said. “I cannot divulge the contents of the letter before we have a discussion as the Sascoc board. I cannot either confirm or deny if the letter says the CSA interim board has been dismissed or not.”
The CSA interim board member tasked to speak to the media, Judith February, was also contacted to confirm the dismissal.
“I’m going into a meeting now. I will chat to you afterwards‚” February told TimesLIVE in a WhatsApp text on Thursday.
It is understood that CSA has called on Sascoc to intervene and work with it to expeditiously come up with a turnaround strategy and brief the minister thereafter.
If all fails‚ TimesLIVE is informed‚ the Members' Council will go directly to the ICC and accuse the minister of interference.