Deal between executives and players spells trouble for CSA board

“It’s a good day for cricket in South Africa.” - SACA president Omphile Ramela heralds a rarity.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

CRICKET South Africa (CSA) on Friday dampened one of the fires threatening to engulf the game in the country when they reached an agreement with their players over a controversial proposal to restructure the domestic level. But that has seriously undermined the current board’s mandate to remain in office.

In terms of a plan CSA’s members council — their highest authority, which includes several board members — approved in April, a dozen teams rather than the current six would play at the highest tier below international cricket. That would have meant scrapping the country’s 11 semi-professional or second tier teams. And that would have led, the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) said, to the loss of up to 70 jobs — which prompted SACA to launch a High Court action against the move.

But some of the CSA suits who authored the blueprint have been swept aside in a slew of suspensions and it seems sense has prevailed. A joint CSA and SACA release on Friday said the members council had rescinded the decision to restructure. SACA have since halted the legal proceedings.

What the release called a “roadmap consultation process” towards a “possible restructure of domestic cricket in South Africa” was in agreement with “SACA’s requirement to be consulted as required by the recognition and procedural agreement of July 2018, which remains valid, binding and enforceable between SACA and CSA”.

The release quoted CSA’s acting chief executive, Jacques Faul, as saying: “This confirms that we have got our partnership relationship with SACA back on track, and it will give everybody, especially our players, certainty and security on the road ahead. As we all know, our players are our biggest asset and it is important that they are consulted when their careers are affected. It is an important part of the process to encourage them to stay in our system rather than seek opportunities abroad. The aim is to complete the consultation process by the end of June 2020,”

SACA president Omphile Ramela was quoted as saying: “It’s a good day for cricket in South Africa. It is critical that the relationship between CSA and SACA is a constructive one. This agreement will bring stability and clarity for players and is a step in the right direction.”

Andrew Breetzke, SACA’s chief executive, was on the same page: “The relationship between SACA and CSA has been characterised by open hostility over the past 12 months. The rescinding of the members council decision and subsequent settlement of the court application will enable SACA to engage with CSA in a constructive manner on the many challenges currently facing cricket in South Africa. Players remain the key stakeholder in the game, and it will be imperative that their interests are protected when dealing with these challenges.”

All of which makes sense. What doesn’t is that neither CSA’s board nor their members council seem to have been involved in undoing the mess they made — their voices were starkly absent from Friday’s release. And that would seem to mean at least some of them are on their way out. President Chris Nenzani and his board are due to meet next week, when resignations — voluntary or not — must be on the cards.

First published by Cricbuzz.