CSA board chair pleads with Members’ Council to save cricket

“It is in your power to save cricket,” is what Dr Stavros Nicolaou, the chairman of the Cricket South Africa Interim Board, told the Members Council on Thursday as he addressed a teleconference to update the media on the current state of the crisis in the game.

Nicolaou said his information is that Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa is currently gazetting action against CSA because of their failure to agree to a new board with a majority of independent directors and an independent chair.

If their punishment is written into law it can only mean that it is serious, but the Interim Board head said there was still a last-ditch way to save the day, which he pleaded with the Members Council to take.

“I don’t want to speculate or speak on the Minister’s behalf on what those measures will look like, but I have been told they will be gazetted, so the game is in extremely dire circumstances,” Nicolaou said on Thursday.

Interim board chairperson of CSA, Dr Stavros Nicolaou. Picture: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images

“What can be done? Well the ball is firmly with the Members Council. If they can show the will and conviction to agree to fundamental principles of good governance.

“The Members Council can instantly remedy this situation if they pass a special resolution that they will get a 75% vote in favour of the Memorandum of Incorporation, which will trigger a Section 60 resolution, which if they all sign in 24 hours then the crisis is averted and they can save cricket. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate.”

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The Interim Board slammed the Members’ Council’s statement alleging the MoI was not negotiated in an inclusive fashion and was thrust upon them, with Nicolaou detailing a timeline from when the Interim Board was appointed on 15 November and their mandate accepted by the Members’ Council.

He said a working group comprising three members from each body had been working on the MoI since 31 January. The scheduling of a Special General Meeting on 17 April to vote on the new constitution had been set on 11 March. Nicolaou said by 15 April, every query of the Members’ Council had been answered and the final MoI was distributed.

“The Members’ Council statement has immense inaccuracies and a number of misrepresentations,” Nicolaou said. “We were exceedingly disappointed with what happened at the SGM, where many prior agreements unravelled. Calling for an indaba of sorts will not help because it is just another tactic to delay the process.

“The chronology shows there was extensive consultation and bringing in Sascoc, who themselves earlier withdrew from the process, has only clouded the issue.

“Now we require a special resolution because we can’t have another undertaking that the MoI is over the line and then we get to the SGM and it’s rejected; the Members’ Council keeping kicking this can down the road.”