Cricket SA is now in good hands, according to the sole objector to the findings of the Khan Commission.
“I think we’ve got a very good acting president in Willie Basson,” said Northerns Cricket Union president Vincent Sinovich.
“He was the president of Northerns for nine years and Jacques Faul, the acting CEO, is a very capable man and I think he will do a very good job. We’ve got two very good guys coming in there.”
Basson and Faul were interim appointments to replace AK Khan, who resigned as CSA’s acting president last week, and chief executive Gerald Majola, who was suspended on Saturday pending a disciplinary inquiry.
Basson will address the media for the first time on Wednesday and outline the road ahead for the beleaguered cricketing body.
CSA’s board voted on Saturday to rescind the decisions made pertaining to the findings of the Khan Committee in November 2010 which failed to take action against Majola for breaching the Companies’ Act.
Sinovich was a lone voice in the wilderness when he voted against the report of the Khan Commission, an internal investigation, headed by then CSA vice president AK Khan.
“Dr Nyoka asked, at the time, whether anyone else felt the same way as I did, but no one said anything,” he said.
“The findings were read to us at a meeting and any normal or intelligent businessman would not get 16 pages read to him and just accept it.
“You would like to go home and digest it, which is exactly what I did.”
The commission considered whether Majola had correctly disclosed bonuses paid to the chief executive and other staff after the hosting of the Indian Premier League and Champions Trophy during the 2009/2010 season.
Sinovich addressed his concerns about the report to John Bester, chairman of CSA’s finance committee, who sat on the Khan Committee and to John Blair, then chairman of the risk and audit committee.
“I then met both John Bester and John Blair, in Johannesburg, at that time, and told them I was not happy with the word ‘adequate’ and, as chartered accountants, they should know that the Companies’ Act requires full disclosure, not adequate disclosure.
“John Bester came and shook my hand and apologised to me on Saturday and admitted I had been right.”
Sinovich, himself a chartered accountant, had to request that the minutes be altered to reflect his negative vote after he disputed the original document which stated that the decision to accept the report had been unanimous.
CSA board member Ray Mali felt it was harsh to judge the board for accepting the Khan Commission report, then rescinding its decision 18 months later, after the Nicholson Commission accused the board of a cover-up.
“The affiliate presidents were only doing what they were mandated to do by their respective boards,” Mali told reporters on Saturday.
Sinovich disputes this.
He said in the case of the Khan Commission, it had not been possible to accept a mandate as it was impossible to predict its findings before the meeting.
“To say they were mandated by their affiliate boards on which way to vote is not true,” he said.
“No one knew what the Khan report would contain, so how could they know beforehand which way they were meant to vote.”
Sinovich praised his Northerns board, which he said had been behind him all the way.
“I received fantastic support from my executive. They backed me to the hilt,” he said.
“They constantly reassured me, saying I was doing the right thing and that the truth would eventually come out.” – Sapa