Cricket South Africa’s decision to postpone an independent review of the performances of the country’s national teams is ostensibly down to disagreements over how much time the four-person panel had at their disposal to conduct their work, the organisation said yesterday.
One member of the panel, Dr Ross Tucker, yesterday also expressed his ‘disappointment’ about what he felt was an attempt by Cricket SA to portray divisions on the panel.
In their statement, CSA said they were forced to put the review ‘on hold’ owing to concerns expressed by the panel around the timing for the review.
The panel that included Tucker, former Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, former Proteas opener Adam Bacher and Dawn Makhobo, the chairperson of CSA’s HR Committee, was established in April to review the performances of all the national teams - senior men’s, senior women’s and the under-19 side - which had failed to make an impact, or a final, in various global tournaments over the last 18 months.
“After speaking with Dawn Mokhobo, it became clear that we should not continue with this review if members of the panel were not confident they could meet my expectations and those of the CSA Board,” said CSA chief executiveHaroon Lorgat.
“We need to be completely aligned on what we expect to achieve from such a review and in what time frame.”
It is understood the panel had the names of over 50 people they wanted to interview as part of their process, including most of the senior men’s national team, and that their work would take up to six months to complete.
CSA’s Board is understood to have wanted the work to be completed in a third of that time.
The panel met last Wednesday when all four members took a decision to suspend the operation.
“I respect the fact that certain members of the review panel were not comfortable and would prefer to step down,” said Lorgat.
Lorgat also took a swipe at what he referred to as ‘certain panel members’ for not respecting the protocols concerning privacy of their work.
“Using media platforms to shape an exercise of this importance is not the way to work.”
Tucker was most vocal of the panelists, taking to Twitter this week when he publicly acknowledged that the panel had stopped its review.
He also gave interviews to various publications and on radio.
“I don’t think it’s justified or logical to use words like certain members of the panel,” said Tucker.
“The panel could function without any one, even two members, so logically the decision they made is obviously a collective one, or the surviving members’ would be continuing.”
“As for the accusation of shaping the review, the information that the panel was not continuing was already out there at the beginning of the week, and had to be confirmed.
“Further than that, there’s too much deflection and political avoidance; it’s not a game I play anyway,” said Tucker.
Lorgat reiterated that CSA remain ‘keen’ to conduct the independent review but what form that will take, or if it will continue with the same members, remains to be seen. “I remain impressed by what the review panel has started to consider in this regard as it could be a wonderful blueprint for South African sport,” Lorgat added. - Saturday Star