Suits cave to majority independent board. Or do they?

That CSA’s members council appears to have remained recalcitrant in the face of South Africa’s teams being withdrawn from the international arena speaks volumes for its unsuitability as a custodian of the game.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

THE lights have finally been turned at CSA, whose members council has agreed — after almost nine years of stalling — to accept a board consisting of a majority of independent directors that is chaired by an independent.

A government release on Saturday said the “two main sticking points standing in the way of the members council and interim board finding common ground have now been successfully resolved”. That had happened because “the members council reconsidered their position on the desirability of both an independent chairperson as well as a board that comprises a majority of independents”.

The members council is comprised of the presidents of CSA’s provincial affiliates and associate members, and is the organisation’s highest authority. But, in terms of the current memorandum of incorporation (MOI), seven of the presidents are also guaranteed places on the 12-member board and one of them leads it. The danger of dodgy dealing taking root amid such incestuousness came true when bonuses paid after the 2009 Indian Premier League, which was staged in South Africa, were not properly declared to CSA’s governance committees.

That led to an investigation by a retired judge, Chris Nicholson, who in March 2012 recommended the restructuring CSA has apparently accepted. But not before years of shoddy financial and governance practices dragged the game’s name through the mud. And not without the members council showing enough arrogance to try to cling to power even in the past few weeks. So much so that, in a March 31 release, sports minister Nathi Mthethwa was quoted as saying he was “being dared to take executive action” by the council. Mthethwa has the authority to withdraw CSA’s funding and its privilege of calling its teams national representatives, which would take South Africa out of the international arena. That the members council appears to have remained recalcitrant in the face of that dire possibility speaks volumes for its unsuitability as a custodian of the game.

“Whilst the two parties are still going to work out the detail required, this agreement paves the way to the adoption of a revised [MOI] that will hopefully be adopted at the next annual meeting [scheduled for April 17],” Saturday’s release said. Mthethwa was quoted as saying: “As has been my position since the appointment of the interim board, I regard this breakthrough as the end of my involvement in the current process. As the two points of difference were the main obstacles threatening the [annual meeting], I have no doubt that the requisite numbers needed to adopt the MOI by the [annual meeting] will be achieved. The ball is now in the hands of the two parties.” The interim board was appointed with Mthethwa’s help in November after the elected board had been persuaded to resign. The members council fought those developments, too. And lost, too.

“It is envisaged that the acting president [Rihan Richards] and the interim board chair [Stavros Nicolaou] will get together soonest in order to not unduly prejudice the agreed timelines and roadmap leading to the election of a new board for CSA [at the annual meeting],” the release said. That would “enable the interim board to meet their target date to give a comprehensive report, before the [annual meeting], which outlines progress achieved on all the nine points contained in the mandate given to them by the minister on their appointment”, which would mark the end of the interim board’s tenure.

Light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, it would seem. Or not. “The board of directors of CSA held a joint meeting with its steering committee in Johannesburg on Saturday and made major progress in implementing the recommendations of the Nicholson committee of enquiry,” a CSA release said. “This is in accordance with the memorandum of agreement signed between CSA, Sport and Recreation South Africa and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee to implement the letter and spirit of the recommendations contained in the Nicholson report.” That release is dated August 11, 2012.

And here South African cricket is nearly nine years later, still trying to get the suits to be true to their word. So the plot might have a few twists left in it yet. From experience, this isn’t over.

First published by Cricbuzz.