Clarity needed from CSA during crisis

There has been good news in South African cricket this week.

Just a little bit, and it is disconnected from South Africa.

Pierre de Bruyn and Albie Morkel with Namibia and Shane Burger and Grant Morgan with Scotland, helped their respective teams to qualify for next year’s ICC T20 World Cup.

Marizanne Kapp took a hat-trick for her Australian franchise, the Sydney Sixers in the Women’s Big Bash in Australia.

That’s about it.

I wrote in this space last week, that South African cricket was at a crossroads.

Well scratch that, because South African cricket is in a full blown crisis now.

Cricket South Africa, the sport’s mother body in this country has forecast enormous debt.

It’s facing a couple of court cases, it could face even more after suspending three senior officials this week, the players don’t trust - or even like - the administrators, the board of directors don’t know what’s going on, the national teams can’t win any more, key positions need to be filled, young players are leaving to play in other countries and sponsors no longer want to attach their names to CSA’s products.

“The most important thing

right now is clarity,” said skipper Faf du Plessis of the need to appoint a director of cricket,

the position in Cricket SA’s structure that will oversee national teams and basically all playing aspects of the game, as quickly as possible.

It is a comment however that could be used for any manner of topics related to South African cricket right now.

There is no proper administrative leadership in the sport.

Thabang Moroe, hastily appointed as Cricket SA’s chief executive in the middle of last year, wants nothing to do with the organisation that represents the professional players, the SA Cricketers Association.

Moroe has talked of taking on more responsibility so that he is not hamstrung by having to run back and forth to the board of directors.

He has talked about being closer to the players and wanting to be in the dressing-room but providing no reasons as to how that would benefit the players or how they perform.

The buck ultimately stops with him.

He’s taken charge of who should be appointed director of cricket and thus who will be the next head coach/team director of the Proteas men’s team and who will be the next chairman of selectors for the side as well.

Every decision taken lately feeds back to Moroe, he wanted it so and judging by their silence, CSA’s Board of Directors want it so too - at least most of them do.

All the decisions taken in the last 12 months, from the enormous debt being incurred by the

Mzansi Super League, the fall out with the players, the lack of sponsors, and yes even the poor performances of the national teams, most notably the Proteas in the Test series in India, can be blamed on Moroe.

The important thing right now is clarity.

CSA needs some honest and clear leadership.

It’s not getting it from Thabang Moroe.