Cricket SA not in chaos, Nenzani insists

Cricket South Africa president Chris Nenzani has denied that the organisation is afflicted by terrible chaos, and while he admits the delays in holding former CEO Thabang Moroe’s disciplinary hearing are not good for the game, he feels they are unavoidable to ensure correct procedures are followed.

Moroe was suspended in December pending the outcome of a forensic investigation, and last week he returned to the CSA offices as he believed his suspension expired after six months.

This happened after the South African Cricketers’ Association – the players’ union – warned that the CSA board lacked the will to finalise Moroe’s case.

CSA’s former head of sales and sponsor relations Clive Eksteen, who was suspended by Moroe in October and fired by CSA at the weekend, on Tuesday announced that he would be taking the organisation to the CCMA for unfair dismissal.

“I don’t think CSA is in chaos although there are challenges we have to go through. We have to make sure we deal with certain in-house issues so they don’t impact on the game,” Nenzani said on Tuesday night.

“We hoped by now that we would have been able to announce the outcome of the investigation into Mr Moroe, but unfortunately not and there is great disappointment over that at board and members council level. It is not desirable that it take so long and we will take the necessary action to ensure CSA are protected.

“But I ask for understanding because we must complete a forensic investigation that meets the highest levels of governance and that is time consuming.

“We have been promised by the investigators that the first part of the report will be ready by Friday and the members council will then decide the way forward, but set processes that need to be followed so we don’t fall foul of the law.

“I can assure that the terms of reference of the investigation are as exhaustive as possible, but it is not common practice to make them public.”

While Nenzani did his best during an hour-long media conference to depict all CSA’s cups as being half-full, the organisation’s president since 2013 admitted he should not have extended his record tenure by another term.

“One of the things I would have done differently in hindsight is that I would not have agreed to serving as president for an additional year,” Nenzani said.

“I regret that. But when you are an elected official you have an obligation to serve and so when the members council asks you to continue then you subject yourself to that.

“But the term of the president will come to an end in the AGM in September.”

The Bisho schoolteacher refused to deny, however, that he had his eye on the position of International Cricket Council chairman.

“As far as the position of chairman goes, the ICC has issued a moratorium on people expressing a desire for that post. They haven’t even opened the process of nominations yet, so it would be premature to make any declarations of being available or not being available.”

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