The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) accepts the decision made by Cricket South Africa’s (CSA’s) Members Forum yesterday to restructure the CSA Board to 12 directors, with seven being non-independent and five being independent, but SACA has serious concerns over the apparent intention of CSA to expand this to a 16 director Board, with nine non-independents and seven independents, in 18 months’ time.
SACA’s decision follows a discussion of the issue by its executive committee and board on Wednesday and amongst the Proteas squad in Port Elizabeth.
SACA lodged a dispute with CSA at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on 22nd November 2012 calling on CSA to finalise its Board structure and to follow as closely as possible the recommendations of the Nicholson Report in doing so. The CCMA conciliation meeting originally scheduled for 13th December 2012 was postponed to 6th February 2013 to give CSA an opportunity to finalise the structure at its annual general meeting scheduled for 2 February 2013. In the event that the dispute is not settled or withdrawn by 6th February 2013, SACA would be in a position to take
the players out on a lawful strike over this issue.
“The players have stood up for good governance in cricket”, said Tony Irish, SACA’s chief executive.” We have a world class national team and the players expect world class governance in the game.” Yesterday’s resolution by CSA to implement a 7:5 director Board is not perfect, but it is a vast improvement on the existing 22 director Board.”
“There has been so much politics and in-fighting within the existing Board and we hope that the significant reduction in size and the higher degree of independence on the Board will make it less unwieldy and political and more focused on good cricket decision-making.”
SACA also accepts CSA’s resolution to appoint the Board’s chairman from the ranks of the non-independent directors. “Hopefully they will appoint the best person for this bearing in mind he or she is also likely to be the person who will sit on the ICC’s executive board”, said Irish. “Good cricket credentials and an understanding of the international cricket landscape are vital here.””SACA and the players are not happy,however, with the indication given that CSA will increase the Board to 16 directors in the future. We don’t think there are good reasons for this and it simply moves further away from the Nicholson Report recommendations and closer to the existing structure, which we all know has been a problem. Should this actually happen it is likely to again become an issue for SACA and the players.”
SACA is disappointed by the news that CSA’s acting chief executive, Jacques Faul, will not be applying for the chief executive position. “Jacques has done a lot for cricket in the short time that he has been acting chief executive” said Irish. “He has been primarily responsible for bringing sponsors back into the game despite what has gone on at Board level. SACA and the players appreciate his contribution.
“Given that the new CSA Board structure will become effective at CSA’s annual general meeting on 2nd February 2013 SACA is set to withdraw its dispute at the CCMA on 6th February 2013. “As there has been significant improvement in the structure it would not be responsible of us to continue with player action at this stage. Hopefully this will end the months of controversy and uncertainty in the governance of the game and everyone can get on with making South African cricket the best it can be.”