CSA board survives. Again.

South Africans are weary of months of watching the suits tear the pinstripes off each other.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

CSA’s board has survived another attempt to remove it from office, but a further effort is likely to be made on Sunday. Already under fire from South Africa’s government and the country’s Olympic body, the board was asked to step down by CSA’s members council on Thursday. It refused, but is to report back to the members council on Sunday.

The saga is set to lurch again on Tuesday, the date set by government for CSA to explain its failings and what it will do about them. If that isn’t done adequately, CSA could find itself no longer in control of the game in South Africa and replaced by an interim committee.

With CSA’s board having stood firm through demands from the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee as well as Nathi Mthethwa, the minister of sport, to step down, it would have been naive to expect it to go quietly on Thursday.

The members council is CSA’s highest authority, but six of its 14 members also sit on the board as non-independent directors. The other eight argued for the board, including the independent members, to stand down. This central flaw in CSA’s structure, which amounts to the board being asked to police itself, is key to why not enough has been done to combat cricket’s deep-seated problems.

Sources have told Cricbuzz that Thursday’s meeting, which endured for more than three hours, deteriorated into verbal squabbling and threats of legal action. Even if something similar happens on Sunday, Mthethwa’s intervention should bring progress on Tuesday.

And not a moment too soon. With the domestic season starting on November 2 and England due in the country in mid-November to play three internationals in each white-ball format, South Africans weary of months of the suits tearing the pinstripes off each other are desperate to focus on events on the field.

When CSA holds its annual meeting on December 5, who is elected to run the game needs to matter less than who’s opening the batting.

First published by Cricbuzz.