“Ultimately the people that make money for cricket is CSA, it’s not a union.” - Thabang Moroe, CSA acting CEO
Sunday Times
TELFORD VICE in Port Elizabeth
THIS was to have been an analysis of what South Africa could learn from England’s performance in Australia, who loom large on our horizon after reclaiming the Ashes in emphatic style.
That is, learn from England how not to do it. Don’t let your captain be pushed around, like the Aussies have done to Joe Root. Don’t let their captain set fire to the crease, like Steve Smith has done. Don’t let their top order settle by feeding them mediocre fast bowling, like James Anderson and Stuart Broad have done. Don’t let your spinner sink without trace, like Moeen Ali has done.
Don’t get into arguments in the pub that go from stupid to senseless when nobodies from your own backyard pour beer over the heads of somebodies, like Ben Duckett apparently did to Anderson.
Still in the pub, don’t headbutt people — even in allegedly friendly fashion. Like Jonny Bairstow did to Cameron Bancroft.
Better yet, stay out of the pub.
You can see where this was going. With Australia and South Africa set to face off at Kingsmead on March 1 in the first of four tests, it seemed a decent yarn.
Then, in conversation with reporters in a Port Elizabeth hotel on Wednesday, Thabang Moroe, Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) vice-president and acting chief executive, said: “Ultimately the people that make money for cricket is CSA, it’s not a union.”
The “union” is the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), which represents the country’s professionals — without whom CSA wouldn’t make a cent because they wouldn’t attract sponsors and broadcasters.
Moroe came to cricket from MTN, whose cellphone contracts wouldn’t be worth the ink used to detail the T&Cs if a complimentary handset wasn’t part of the bargain. Substitute CSA’s players for MTN’s handsets and you see where this is going.
Moroe delivered his four-alarm one-liner during discussion about possible changes to CSA’s Memorandum of Understanding with SACA.
Might the revenue sharing agreement that has held between CSA and SACA for 12 years be something Moroe wants changed?
“That is for the board and its members to debate,” he said. “I just have a view on how a company should be run from the management point of view and how a company needs to engage with a trade union.
“Obviously I will be presenting my views to the board and the board will make its decision.”
By then, all thoughts of Australians had frozen solid in the room’s conditioned air. Except this: Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Cricketers’ Association spent 10 of 2017’s dozen months locked in a pay dispute.
At issue were changes CA wanted to make to their revenue sharing system with Australia’s players, which would have left state cricketers out of pocket.
In an admirable display of solidarity, the stars stood with their less illustrious peers and things got bad enough for an A tour to South Africa to be cancelled.
Was CSA not nervous that something similar might happen here, especially as a new MOU is due to go into effect at the end of April?
“We would be, but ultimately CSA needs to run cricket and the trade union needs to protect their players’ rights,” Moroe said.
“If CSA is trampling on peoples’ rights, the union must step in. If CSA decides to take a different direction in growing cricket, there is no room for a union there because we are not trampling on peoples’ rights — we are protecting the sport that we have been put in charge to administer.”
What did SACA think about all that?
“The noises we are hearing from CSA are concerning and go against the spirit of how things have worked in the past,” chief executive Tony Irish said.
“I would be astounded if CSA take a confrontational approach to the [MOU] talks. They should look at what happened in Australia.”
Indeed, they should. CA blinked first, and happily the team Steve Smith will lead to South Africa should feature players like David Warner and Josh Hazlewood and not the Aussie equivalent of Ben Duckett.
Imagine the sledging: “G’day mate. Shouldn’t you be on strike?”
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