NEIL MANTHORP: Slowly but surely, Cricket SA’s tarnished reputation is being restored

A fascinating exchange of columns a week apart in the Sunday Times may have far more important and positive ramifications for Cricket SA (CSA) than the subject of those columns.  

A week ago, respected writer and editor Barney Mthombothi bemoaned the “political hatchet job” being conducted on director of cricket Graeme Smith and national men’s coach Mark Boucher. The national teams were winning and that was what we should be focusing on, Mthombothi wrote.

CSA would usually have wafted away such criticism like a lazy fly and poured itself another drink from the complimentary bar, if it even noticed. But this is a CSA in a rebuilding phase that started with a new constitution and board in 2021. There are still parts of the organisation that any decent structural engineer would condemn as “terminally unsafe”, but it is getting there.

The few hand-me-down, non-independent members of the discredited former board who remain on the new board have good reason to keep their heads down. Those who actually cared about the game and their reputation resigned long ago. Perhaps those who hung on to a seat at the big table realise now that keeping a low profile is their best hope of a return to the days of gravy and influence. 

But there were less obvious reasons for the new, majority independent directors to stay so far below the parapet for so long. They are good people, though not enough of them are women. One reason they have seemed so anonymous since they took over is an agreement they reached at the start of their tenure that the chair, Lawson Naidoo, would be their spokesperson. He would “do media”. Keep it clear and simple and run no risk of contradiction or confusion.

There was also another, more resonant reason for their silence — the power of association. The CSA’s reputation had fallen so low among the game’s followers that even those who had never before worked in the game feared they would be tarnished. It’s like eating a lavish meal in an opulent restaurant believed to be owned and funded by a drug lord. You don’t shout about it.  

Slowly but surely, and happily, that is beginning to change. Having initially given themselves 100 days to assess the damage and survey the repair options to the game’s structure and reputation, the new directors are finally starting to work in daylight. Their individual areas of expertise will be put to best use and they will be given their own voice where helpful and appropriate. We will slowly see the fruits of their labour.

Naidoo penned the response this week along with the director, Steven Budlender, who now has the unenviable and time-consuming task of handling Cricket SA’s vast collection of legal cases. Naidoo has spent his life dedicated to the pursuit and defence of human rights while Budlender is a senior counsel commanding huge and widespread respect. 

They explained that Boucher had been the subject of “tentative findings” of racism by the ombudsman of the social justice and nation building (SJN) hearings and that, tentative or not, the allegations needed to be explored — as per Dumisa Ntsebeza’s recommendation. If not, the ramifications of the allegations would be long-lasting and damaging to both the individuals and the organisation. 

What they did not say, because they are decent people, is that neither of them nor the majority of their fellow directors were involved at the time CSA committed itself to holding the SJN hearings and had little say in the shape they would take. They also did not explain that “gross misconduct” was the only term possible for the charges against Boucher. Being charged with “racism” is, ipso facto, gross misconduct. 

The most important aspect of their reply, however, was simply that they cared enough to produce it. It may have signalled an end to the days when CSA halfheartedly threw a cup of water on the fires of dysfunction and mismanagement that raged through its offices. A couple of paragraphs of denial with no explanation would suffice.

There are still fires burning. The independent directors who have real jobs in functioning corporations know what a mess the CSA communications department is. They know there is a looming crisis regarding national player contracts (specifically single-format contracts), and they know the most pressing concern is the appointment of a full-time CEO, without whom most issues cannot be satisfactorily resolved. 

At the end of March the Indian Premier League (IPL) is due to start a week before a two-Test series against Bangladesh, with World Test Championship points at stake. Will CSA insist that Anrich Nortjé, Kagiso Rabada, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen and others stay behind to play those matches and miss the first four rounds of the IPL? If they do, will it affect whether those players are bought at the IPL auction?

Those are but a fraction of the problems in the directors’ inbox. But they are doing the right thing in the Boucher and Smith cases (though we don’t know exactly what the charges are against Smith), and there are many reasons to believe they will continue to do the right thing in other matters. 

Mthombothi was right about one thing. The national players, men and women, are not receiving anything like the attention, applause and gratitude they deserve. It requires a good, selfless executive and board of directors for that to happen. There is a long, long way to go. But a good start has been made.