Former president, major sponsors call on Cricket South Africa to clean up act
Cricket South Africa (CSA) has been called to clean up their act and account for the current crisis in the nationās cricket by former president Norman Arendse and major sponsors Standard Bank. Arsendseās open letter raised concerns over the proposed domestic restructure and financial crisis.
For no apparent reason, five journalists had their match access revoked by CSA on Sunday, following which concerns over the boardās running of the game were raised by the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) and the South African Cricketers' Association (SACA). CEO Thabang Moroe later explained the board was unhappy with their reporting and had requested meetings to discuss this but the quintet refused. The journalists were later informed that their match access had been reactivated, but according to ESPNCricinfo, the incident was the last straw for several officials.Ā
In Arendseās letter to the "cricket-loving fraternity,'' he accused the CSA board of failing in its responsibilities and asked it to "act before it's too late" to put CSA on a more secure and sustainable footing.
"The CSA Board has simply abdicated its fiduciary responsibilities by failing to act with due care, skill and diligence required of it by the Companies Act, and the CSA Constitution. To the extent that the CSA Members' Council are aware of the above mentioned shortcomings and failures of governance, they too must share responsibility, and be held accountable. I, therefore, call on the Board and the Members' Council to meet urgently to consider the matters raised in this letter, and to hold the CEO (and those who have been complicit) to account," Arendse wrote as per ESPNCricinfo.
CSA's proposed domestic restructure to eliminate the six-team franchise system and put in a 12-team provincial competition instead, their failure to replace Arendse in the lead independent director role, and the organisationās projected losses of R654 million (USD44 million approx) in the next four-year cycle were among the chief concerns raised in the letter.Ā
"The future sustainability of cricket is also at grave risk given the public CSA pronouncement of a projected shortfall of hundreds of millions of Rands. It appears that the culling of franchise cricket as we know it is a direct response to CSA's financial woes," Arendse added.
After all the criticism, Moroe responded to Arendse's statement in a diplomatic manner.Ā Meanwhile, Standard Bank demanded a meeting with CSA on Monday to discuss what it called "governance and conduct media reports which have brought the game into disrepute".Ā
"Cricket South Africa has noted the open letter from Adv Arendse and we respect his views. The most important issue right now is for CSA to demonstrate a level of stability and start moving towards its former days of glory. This for us is not only important for the brand but more so the fans of cricket and the future of the sport of cricket in this country," Moroe said.