Editor’s Note by Zoubair Ayoob
WITH England due in South Africa for ODI and T20 series against the Proteas in just a few weeks, one would expect the country's cricket authorities to all be pulling in the same direction to ensure the tour is a success.
Both to get some much-needed funds into the coffers and to give fans, starved of action for several months because of the pandemic, their fix.
After Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa finally gave the go-ahead for the tour to proceed, it appeared that all was well in beleaguered Cricket South Africa (CSA) land as balls were bowled in anger with the domestic 4-day series getting underway too.
Until CSA's Members' Council, comprising 14 provincial union presidents, announced this week, it would no longer recognise the interim board appointed last month by Mthethwa.
The council cited procedural concerns about the interim board not being appointed in terms of CSA’s Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI), the blurring of lines regarding the roles and responsibilities of the council and interim body, and an apparent conflict of interest involving interim board member Haroon Lorgat, CSA’s former chief executive.
None of these issues appear insurmountable and point to a wider agenda at play. The interim board was appointed to address a host of matters, including revisiting reports which led to CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe losing his job and board members tendering their resignations. CSA should assist the board in its efforts instead of being obstructionist, because there is nothing to hide, is there?
The Independent on Saturday