Members Council’s scramble to keep seats on gravy train

The Sands of Time are running out for Cricket South Africa’s Members Council, so their last desperate attempts to block progress and the restructuring of the Board should be no surprise.

The same self-serving administrators who put their own interests ahead of those of the game as a whole and allowed cricket to be captured were never going to vacate their seats on the gravy train without an almighty struggle.

That they have been operating in poor faith becomes clear when one considers that they themselves agreed to the establishment of the Interim Board on the basis that they would introduce a majority independent board chaired by an independent director, but now that the memorandum of incorporation, amended to include these prerequisites has been presented, they have refused to accept it.

Their excuse for not ratifying the changes was that they were instructed to do so by their constituencies, but it seems this is a flimsy reason.

Follow-up investigations with the provincial boards have shown that the ones who mandated a vote against the new MOI did so based on the incomplete picture they were presented by their provincial presidents sitting on the Members Council and eager to have more of a shot at a place on the new board.

The major sticking point appears to be the definition of an “independent” director and those wanting to stymie progress have warned that this will lead to cricket being run by people who have no love nor knowledge of the game.

That is pure fear-mongering and much of it has been deliberate, not just the understandable caution when approaching a landmark change in how things are done in cricket administration.

There is an inevitability that the recalcitrant administrators will eventually lose, but some of them seem willing to hold out for as long as possible, never mind if it breaks the game in this country.

As has been said, and proven, several times before, the Members Council cannot take on the Minister of Sport and hope to win.

Nathi Mthethwa holds all the aces and has all the legal weaponry he needs to force them to comply.

Unfortunately, many of these will devastate the game – much like a couple of nuclear bombs ended World War II, but also caused immense suffering and damage.

The sports minister can withhold funding or remove the right to award national colours from CSA, effectively suspending the Proteas’ involvement in international cricket.

Let’s hope that matters do not have to go that far.

It causes immense frustration that the players, through a strongly-worded statement from SACA, sponsors, media and the general public, have all expressed their great dismay at the attitude of the Members Council and yet the stubborn miscreants who have already done so much damage to the game continue to defy all calls for them to embrace change or move out.

Minister Mthethwa will justifiably be enraged by the lack of respect he has been shown and that is certainly the emotion I feel when confronted by the sheer, selfish obduracy of the individuals on the Members Council.

The world has changed, and top-level sport is no longer an amateur endeavour that can be run by the blazer brigade.

Hopefully the light bulb will come on soon at the Members Council and they will ensure a more certain future for the game.

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