Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula will convene a meeting with Cricket South Africa next week to provide his input on the organisation’s progress in implementing the findings of Judge Chris Nicholson’s inquiry.
Cricket SA provided Mbalula with a progress report a week ago – as per his request – and he will make clear his opinion to them at a meeting likely to take place early next week. Mbalula is currently in Moscow as part of South Africa’s party at the joint meeting between the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board and the Association of National Olympic Committees.
He is one of about 120 sports ministers and deputy sports ministers expected to attend the second World Olympic Sport Convention which starts in Moscow today. The two-day event will cover a range of issues, including the role of governments in the affairs of the Olympic Movement.
Mbalula returns to the country on Friday, and will then schedule a meeting with CSA.
Cricket SA has already moved to establish interim leadership, including stand-in president Willie Basson and interim chief executive Jacques Faul. The latter was seconded from the North West Cricket Union after former incumbent Gerald Majola was suspended by CSA’s board on the recommendations of Nicholson.
Majola is awaiting the appointment of an independent disciplinary committee which will decide on action to be taken against him after Nicholson agreed with forensic audits from KPMG that he had breached sections of the Companies Act in obtaining bonuses when South Africa hosted the Indian Premier League and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2009.
Cricket SA approached the chairman of the Bar Council to appoint an independent assessor but the number of public holidays in recent weeks has delayed the process. Cricket SA’s executive consultant, Michael Owen-Smith, confirmed that Majola’s legal team were going over various documents while awaiting the appointment of the assessor.
Meanwhile, the eight-man steering committee appointed by the board two weeks ago to look into the establishment of a new Board of Directors and putting in place firmer administrative structures has already begun its work. Among the most important of Nicholson’s recommendations was for the establishment of a new more independent Board of Directors to run the affairs of the sport.
Nicholson recommended a 12-member Board with nine non-executive members. Some in CSA feel that the latter figure is too many – however it will be up to the eight-member steering committee to determine if that is the case.
That committee comprises of four “independents”, three of whom – Rushdie Magiet (a former selector), Alan Jordaan (former national team manager) and Ashwin Desai (who worked on a number of committees regarding transformation in the 1990s) – have connections to cricket.
Cricket SA’s next board meeting will be held next month.