CSA ADMINISTRATION APATHY CSA scramble to save face after sponsor speaks up Telford Vice Share Tweet

The CSA muck stops with Moroe, who issued a cap-in-hand apologetic media release on Tuesday. ©Getty

Rarely has so banal an announcement as the rescheduling of a press conference carried as much weight as the notification Cricket South Africa (CSA) sent out on Tuesday (December 3) afternoon. The evening's planned appearance by president Chris Nenzani and chief executive Thabang Moroe had been moved, an hour-and-a-half after it had been promised, to Saturday because "there will be a board meeting on Saturday at which important decisions will be made".

There's breaking news in that seemingly bland statement - cricket-minded South Africans are increasingly of the opinion that important decisions haven't been made at a CSA board meeting since forever. Instead, the suits have removed their hands from under their plushly cushioned posteriors only to take the USD 27200 they could earn annually merely by turning up, even as the game lurches from one shambles to another.

At least, that's how it looks from every vantage point outside the boardroom. Three hours before the postponement it had emerged that one of the board's sorry number, Shirley Zinn, had cut her losses and run. Or, if we must be polite about this, resigned her position, apparently for reasons "related to the principles of corporate governance". You have to wonder how she suddenly remembered them, and when some of Zinn's fellow zombies will also take the coward's way out and flee the scene of their disgrace. C'mon, punks, make our day. What's taking you so long?

Another day, another drama. This day's drama began with a telephone call from Moroe to four of the five journalists who had their accreditation revoked on Sunday. Moroe apologised and said sincere and serious attempts would be made to try and repair the damage, and that he had been misinformed that reporters had refused to meet with him. He had repeated this malicious nonsense in public several times since Sunday's stupidly brazen assault on the press. So it will take far more than a press conference to fix things. That's if the presser even happens, or if Moroe is still in his position by then.

There is no guarantee of the latter now that CSA have finally cottoned on to the looming reality that if they don't stop their reckless attacks on any and all who question them, they will soon have nothing left to defend. For the small-minded, that means someone will have to take the fall. Moroe is a prime candidate, along with calamity-prone spokesperson Thamie Mthembu, who it appears wouldn't know a straight answer to a straight question if it smacked him upside the head. Might either or both Moroe and Mthembu already have been jettisoned had CSA been able to avoid tying their own shoelaces together? Cricbuzz understands that board members flew to Johannesburg on Tuesday for an emergency meeting that, thanks to the crippling chaos that seems to cloud everything CSA touches, never took place. So, for now, the muck stops with Moroe. Unsurprisingly, then, a cap-in-hand release quoting him arrived late in the afternoon.

"2019 has been a challenging year for CSA. As CEO of CSA, it is my responsibility to articulate solutions for the way forward and to take you, our stakeholders, into my confidence, in order to rebuild trust in brand CSA. To this end, I address this to the board of CSA, our members, our partners and sponsors, SANEF [the South African National Editors' Forum], and the many journalists, and the fans of the incredible sport of cricket. I unreservedly apologise on behalf of CSA for the erroneous process that led to journalists having accreditation revoked. I am proud to live in a free and fair South Africa where each and every one of us has the ability to compliment and criticise any organisation, including my own for my and/or my team's efforts.

"Too many people have made the ultimate sacrifice for the privilege of free speech and I'd like to apologise to SANEF and all of your members for any harm that was caused during our accreditation error in judgement. We encourage transparent reporting of the highs and lows of CSA and every South African institution - public or private. I would also like to apologise to our sponsors for the ambiguity of the CSA Tweet [on Monday] where we thanked our sponsors for their support - it wasn't our intention for that Tweet to infer support for the accreditation blunder but instead to thank them for our longstanding partnerships... It is understandable that my job as CEO is always under the microscope. It's not just for ethical reasons but for my love of cricket that I adhere to due process, especially during uncomfortable moments... What has become apparent and a learning point for us as an organisation, is the absolute need for more dialogue with our stakeholders. To this end, I commit to ensure that the outflow of communications from my organisation is far more frequent and transparent that has happened in the past."

Nice try. What no doubt dumped Moroe on the side of the Damascus Road with nary an Uber in sight was the meeting that Standard Bank, one of CSA's few remaining major sponsors, demanded on Monday "in the wake of governance and conduct media reports which have brought the name of cricket into disrepute". On Tuesday, a statement proclaimed a "productive meeting with CSA last night amid reported governance and conduct challenges that have tarnished the image of cricket in South Africa". The bank said it "expressed its displeasure at the unsatisfactory manner in which CSA had engaged some of its stakeholders on the reported governance issues", and that it "acknowledged CSA's undertaking to urgently implement remedial actions to address stakeholder concerns, including the unacceptable manner in which it treated members of the media".

How far have we crashed when it falls to bankers, the coldblooded creatures who take our money for the privilege of keeping our money safe from other, less well-dressed thieves, who suck the natural born goodness out of so many people, who damn near ended the world as we know it in 2008, to tell us when we have lost our way? That is truly terrifying. But it is the truth about cricket in South Africa today. That will not change whatever anyone says on Saturday, or any other day. It's what is done that matters, and there is so much to do to save the game in this country from itself. If that is still possible.

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