DELVING DEEPER INTO T20GL

Moroe's T20GL conduct under scanner as CSA discuss CEO position

by Tristan Holme & Luke Alfred • Last updated on

It is now learnt that the acting CEO Thabang Moroe never attended any of the T20GL subcommittee meetings. © Agencies

An apparent dereliction of duty by Thabang Moroe has brought into question why Cricket South Africa appointed him as their acting chief executive in the wake of former chief executive Haroon Lorgat's axing last year.

Cricbuzz can reveal that Moroe failed to attend a single meeting of the Twenty20 Global League's subcommittee - of which he was a member and on which he was meant to sit. This would appear to be one of the "pervasive governance lapses" which were highlighted by an investigation into CSA's failure to launch the T20GL last year.

Moroe was vice-president at the time that CSA, led by then-chief executive Lorgat, were attempting to set up the new league. But he was also part of a four-man subcommittee who were appointed to act as a bridge between Lorgat and the CSA board. CSA president Chris Nenzani and independent board members Louis von Zeuner and Iqbal Khan were the other members of the subcommittee.

The revelation that Moroe failed to attend the meetings with Lorgat, which took place on a more or less weekly basis over the course of several months, makes his comments last year about the reasons for the league's postponement even more curious. At a press conference on October 10, the day that the league was postponed, Moroe appeared to point the finger at Lorgat, when he said: "The board takes full responsibility in terms of what's happened because the board took its trust and placed it in the hands of a few individuals, and not all the information the board needed in order for it to be comfortable enough to continue with the league at this stage was forthcoming.

"That information wasn't forthcoming and some of it is still not forthcoming. I'm dealing with information that's been available to me for the past week-and-a-half. There's still more information that I need in front of me and to give to my board and the team I need to work with so we can come out with all of this information. The board wasn't fully appraised."

At the time, Moroe was not asked why he had lacked the information given his position on the subcommittee, possibly because it was naively assumed that he was fulfilling his role. Moroe's ignorance is also strange given that his name appears on the T20GL company registration papers, a copy of which is with Cricbuzz. It transpires, in fact, that there was no way in which he could be in possession of all the available information - because he never attended a single meeting at which that information would have been discussed or could have been requested.

Asked for comment, Moroe told Cricbuzz that he was "never elected" to the subcommittee. However insiders confirmed that the subcommittee was appointed rather than elected, and Moroe was supposed to be part of it.

Moroe was promoted from the position of CSA vice-president to that of acting chief executive on September 28, when the organisation's concerns over Lorgat's handling of the new league led them to part ways. Moroe's future, as well as that of the chief executive position, is due to be discussed when the CSA board meet in Durban on Friday (February 2).

Over the past few months, Cricbuzz has repeatedly pointed out the contradiction at the heart of the current crisis of legitimacy at CSA: that those implicated in last year's T20GL postponement - a postponement which cost CSA R184-million - are the very same people who now insist that they can be trusted to take the organisation forward.

Increasingly it is becoming clear that there were systemic governance and operational failures throughout the year. Lorgat and his then-chief financial officer, Naasei Appiah, for example, had a non-existent working relationship and the office was riven with antagonism and mistrust. Appiah has subsequently been appointed to the position of chief operating officer in an acting capacity and, it is understood, has taken on greater responsibility in CSA's affairs.

The questions go beyond whether Moroe undertook his remit with sufficient seriousness and extend - in particular - to the oversight roles played by Von Zeuner and Khan. The pair are among CSA's five independent directors and, as such, are required to scrutinise the commercial and broadcast arrangements behind a tournament like the T20GL.

Until the Judge Nicholson report (which came about as a result of the Gerald Majola bonus-scandal crisis) CSA did not have independent directors on the board. Nicholson envisaged that they would ask the awkward questions, speaking truth to the cosy compromises that are such an endemic feature of South African sport. The cricket-loving public are entitled to ask if they have undertaken their fiduciary duties with sufficient rigour. It would certainly appear that their colleague, Moroe, did not discharge his, a fact for which he was rewarded by becoming acting chief executive, a position he has occupied for four months.

CSA have still failed to give the public any details on the 'why' of the T20GL postponement. They have swept a governance and procurement report, commissioned by a reputable firm, under the covers. But as with the Wanderers pitch, cracks are appearing as early as day two. This sticky wicket is unlikely to play out any differently.

© Cricbuzz