Nenzani kept on to ‘stabilise’ Cricket SA

Chris Nenzani said no sinister motives are behind the extension of his period as Cricket South Africa president, a decision that required a change to the organisation’s constitution.

Rather, according to Nenzani, the need for stability was crucial, resulting in CSA’s Board of Directors and provincial affiliates ratifying the decision to keep him in the position for another 12 months, making him the longest serving president of CSA.

CSA have undertaken a raft of structural changes, not only around the national team that includes the appointment of a Director of Cricket, but also in the domestic playing programme, switching from the current six-franchise system to a 14-team provincial one.

Then there have also been a number of changes at board level that have seen Norman Arendse, Louis von Zeuner and Vusi Pikoli resign as independent directors in the last year, while the terms of two other independent directors, Mohammed Iqbal Khan and Dawn Makhobo, end soon as well.

“The reason given to me (to remain as president) was to stabilise the situation in the organisation, because it is going through a lot of changes,” Nenzani said at CSA’s annual general meeting on Saturday.

“Since 2018 there has been a high turnover on the board; we failed at the World Cup and that has forced us to introduce a different structure for the team management and team coaching. We are appointing a key person, a Director of Cricket, and at the same time we have given a lot of responsibility to the management through the office of the CEO.

“These are not small changes, they require sensible leadership - which is not to say no one else can provide that - I’m part of a collective and that collective will provide that sensible leadership."

CSA’s financials also showed a loss of over R200 million for the last year, compared to a profit of just under R350m for the previous year (mainly the result of the lucrative tours here by India and Australia).

Last summer’s incoming tours by Pakistan and Sri Lanka were nowhere near as lucrative and in fact were, along with expenses incurred by the Mzansi Super League, the primary reasons for the huge losses.

CSA currently sits with cash reserves of R856m. Khan, finance and commercial committee chairman, presented the audited financial statement at the AGM, giving a breakdown of how the organisation was working towards alleviating the forecast losses, which for the four-year period ending April 2022 were pegged at R654m.

Khan explained that through a three-phase exercise that included cutting all new projects, structural changes to the game (including the switch back to a provincial system), a R35m ICC grant and recalculations of deals taking into account a changing rand/dollar exchange rate, the forecast losses now stood at around R120m. “That is a figure we are comfortable we can break even with over the next three years."

At the AGM Northerns Cricket Union president Tebogo Siko was voted onto the CSA board as a non-independent director.