da premier bet： The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) has decided to withdraw player action against CSA after commitments were made to board restructure, but remain unhappy with the possibility of expanding the board
Firdose Moonda10-Jan-2013The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) has withdrawn playeraction against CSA after commitments were made to board restructureyesterday, but remain unhappy with the possibility of expanding the board.SACA lodged a dispute with the country’s Commission for Conciliation,Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in November last year as it looked toforce CSA to follow the recommendations of the Nicholson report. Thatdocument suggests an 11-member board with five independent directorsincluding the chair.CSA has opted for a 12-man structure with the same number of independentsbut not the chairperson and will expand the board after 18 months. Then,they will have 16 directors with seven independents and nine provincialpresidents to satisfy the South African Sports Confederation and OlympicCommittee (SASCOC) who require that all nine provinces be represented onthe board.Since SASCOC is the governing body for all sports federations in thecountry and the Nicholson report was a “guideline” only, CSA decided theirmost recent decision would be the best compromise for all parties. SACA issatisfied with most of the decisions including the non-independent chairbut their chief executive, Tony Irish, hinted they could go back to theCCMA when the enlargement happens.”The players have stood up for good governance in cricket. We have a worldclass national team and the players expect world class governance in thegame. Yesterday’s resolution by CSA to implement a 7:5 director board isnot perfect, but it is a vast improvement on the existing 22 director Board.”There has been so much politics and in-fighting within the existing boardand we hope that the significant reduction in size and the higher degree ofindependence on the board will make it less unwieldy and political and morefocused on good cricket decision-making.”Hopefully they will appoint the best person for the chairmanship bearing inmind he is also likely to be the person who will sit on the ICC’s executiveboard. Good cricket credentials and an understanding of the internationalcricket landscape are vital here.”SACA and the players are not happy, however, with the indication given thatCSA will increase the Board to 16 directors in the future. We don’t thinkthere are good reasons for this and it simply moves further away from theNicholson Report recommendations and closer to the existing structure,which we all know has been a problem. Should this actually happen it islikely to again become an issue for SACA and the players.”The players are also unhappy that acting CSA chief executive Jacques Faulwill not apply for the job permanently. Faul told ESPNcricinfo he will remain in the role until a new boss is found, which is after the February2 AGM, but then he will pursue other interests. “Jacques has done a lot forcricket in the short time that he has been acting chief executive. He hasbeen primarily responsible for bringing sponsors back into the game despitewhat has gone on at board level,” Irish said.Under Faul, CSA signed major sponsors across all formats, having lost themin the throes of the bonus scandal. Although many of the contracts werealready in negotiation when Faul began in the job last March, he managed toget the deals signed and there is worry in circles of South African cricketthat the corporates may become nervous of CSA once again.Sponsorship has been the only area in which the national team was directlyaffected by the administrative issues. They played a T20 and ODI series in2011 against Australia without corporate backing and the domestic one-daycompetition that season was also unfunded.While that did not affect player payments, potential existed for it to doso in the long-run, if companies continued to stay away from cricket. Irishdoes not want to run the risk of that again, hence the objection forstraying too far from the Nicholson suggestions.