CSA plan ‘will create winners and losers’

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

NO elections will be held at Cricket SA’s (CSA) annual meeting in Johannesburg on Saturday, but the shape of the game looks set to be significantly altered by the adoption of a new operational model.

The measures could be seen as CSA’s bid to cushion themselves from the effects of the hostile takeover of world cricket by India, England and Australia.

The theme of CSA’s chief executives’ conference in Johannesburg last week - “Moving from understanding the issues to implementing solutions” - makes plain that change is underway.

But CSA’s methods for effecting those changes could have parallels with the big three’s International Cricket Council (ICC) coup in that it is likely to enrich some of SA’s unions at the expense of others.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), for instance, have reserved for themselves 22% of the revenues raised in the ICC’s media rights cycle that will run from 2015 to 2023. CSA will be given 1.3%.

That translates into projected revenue of US$550-million to US$770-million for the BCCI. CSA will have to be satisfied with between US$32.5-million and US$45.4-million.

Similarly, CSA’s new plan could create disparities among their 12 provincial unions - who depend on the national body for much of their funding.

“This will create winners and losers,” an insider said on Thursday. “It looks like they are going to try and marginalise the smaller unions. For instance, they could take franchise T20 games away from their grounds.

“But the bigger unions (where the six professional franchises are based) are probably going to get richer, so you have to ask whether CSA will be growing cricket as a truly national sport or just making sure income matches expenditure.”

CSA lost R319-million in projected revenue when last season’s tour by India was scaled down from 12 to five matches - the BCCI’s reaction to CSA defying them by appointing Haroon Lorgat as their chief executive last year.

“You can’t say there’s an upside to that. Would you need to right-size if you had another R200-million in the bank?

“The realities are that CSA will get less money from the ICC and that they are going to have fewer opportunities to make money.”

Another source saw the good in CSA’s new blueprint: “All the work Haroon started before the Indian tsunami has been followed through and finished, and there’s now a tremendous sense of focus at operational level.

“It’s all about making the game work within the finances SA cricket is going to have and being very clear about where we are going to allocate money and resources.

“It’s about understanding the scale of the business and where you allocate what as efficiently and professionally as possible.

“There are formulas in place to measure this, which will inform where and how money is allocated. It’s not going to be about random allocations. It’s a very professional approach.”

CSA ignored requests for comment on the new plan.