New chair Lawson Naidoo is well aware of the challenges facing Cricket SA

Lawson Naidoo was elected the new Cricket SA majority independent board chair on Tuesday.

Steven Budlender was elected as the lead independent director when the new board met for its first meeting.

Naidoo and Budlender, an advocate, were appointed as Cricket SA directors at the organisation’s annual general meeting on June 12 in a historic event where the cricket body‚ under a minister-appointed interim board‚ fought tooth and nail to become the first sporting code in the country to have a majority independent board.

Naidoo‚ who is the executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution and a founding partner of political risk consultancy the Paternoster Group‚ thanked his fellow directors for showing confidence in him.

“We are all well aware of the challenges facing us in making Cricket SA a world-class sporting organisation both on and off the field of play‚” Naidoo said.

The new board said it would focus in its first 100 days on stabilising Cricket SA and would embark on an engagement programme to gain input from stakeholders as it seeks to align everyone towards a shared vision.

Naidoo and Budlender were appointed with Norman Arendse‚ Andrew Hudson‚ Simo Lushaba‚ Andisa Ntsubane‚ Mark Rayner and Muditambi Ravele as the eight independent directors in the new-look 15-person board.

The five non-independent directors are Daniel Govender from KwaZulu-Natal‚ Limpopo’s John Mogodi‚ Mpumalanga’s Craig Nel‚ Tebogo Siko from Northerns and Simphiwe Ndzundzu from Border.

Acting CEO Pholetsi Moseki and acting CFO Christelle Janse van Rensburg will be incorporated as directors to complete the board.

The last time Cricket SA had a lead independent director was when Arendse occupied the position in 2013-2018. Budlender has now been entrusted with that responsibility.