CAPE TOWN - Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa hopes Cricket SA’s new interim nine-person board, which includes former CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat, will work without "fear, favour or prejudice" in attempting to "stabilise cricket in this country".
After consultation between the sports ministry, CSA's members' council - the highest-decision making body in the game, made up of the 14 provincial affiliate presidents - and the South African Cricketers' Association (SACA), Mthethwa unveiled an impressive list including Lorgat, Omphile Ramela, Professor Andre Odendaal, Judge Zak Yacoob, Dr Stavros Nicolaou, Judith February, Andile Dawn Mbatha, Xolani Vonya, and Nkeko Caroline Mampuru that will oversee the game in this country for the next three months. Judge Yacoob has been elected chairperson of the board.
"The board is going to have no holy cows. It's not going to be bound by decisions which may not be in the best interest of cricket. We are emphasising that it is an interim board. We think that within three months, they would have delivered, especially because this is a group of people who would know what to do," Mthethwa said.
Mthethwa once again stressed that the implementation of the recommendations of the Nicholson report was long overdue. The report, established in 2011 by then sports minister Fikile Mbalula to address governance issues surrounding the IPL bonus scandal, recommended that the majority of the members on the board should be independent and include experts from different fields.
The interim board certainly boasts "men and women with a range of skills in the areas of law, governance, business and international relations" with Lorgat having previously headed both Cricket SA and the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Late former national president Nelson Mandela appointed Yacoob to the Constitutional Court in 1998 and served until 2013, February is a lawyer, governance specialist and columnist, while Mbatha is a chief financial officer of the Independent Electoral Commission.
Mampuru is a former special investigations Unit (SIU) deputy head, and Nicolaou is a senior executive in the pharmaceutical industry. Odendaal is a former Western Province Cricket Association and Robben Island chief executive and chaired the CSA’s Transformation Monitoring Committee from 1998 to 2002.
BREAKING NEWS: First phase of the new CSA interim board taking shape... Full board to be announced at 11:30 @IOL @SABCNews #sscricket https://t.co/aSiqUXXm24
— Zaahier Adams (@ZaahierAdams) October 30, 2020
Equally, Ramela may best be remembered as a former first-class cricketer with the Cape Cobras and Highveld Lions, but the 32-year-old possesses a BA degree and two honours degrees, one in Philosophy and one in Economics and a Masters in Economics with a focus on Economic history from Stellenbosch University. He will, though, relinquish his current position as SACA president to avoid any conflict of interest.
Mthethwa also indicated that CSA’s annual general meeting that was originally scheduled for September 5, and then postponed until December 5, could most likely be further delayed for the interim board to complete their work as “we have no business as government to run cricket."
@ZaahierAdams