Cricket South Africa is extremely worried about the state of some of its major provincial affiliates on the eve of the 2019/20 season.
Western Province Cricket Association has been put into administration, while the Central Gauteng Lions is once again set to have its affairs set in order by a retired judge. “We are concerned by how the provinces have been administering their businesses,” said Cricket SA’s CEO, Thabang Moroe.
As reported by iol.co.za on Thursday, the WPCA is in danger of losing out on hosting the New Year’s Test match against England in January over concerns about the construction of an office block taking place at Newlands. Moroe said he’d be meeting with WP cricket officials next week, including Professor Andre Odendaal, who Cricket SA appointed as the administrator to oversee the WPCA’s affairs. “We are concerned with the finances of Western Province, so as CSA we want to understand some of the decisions they have taken and what their plans are in terms of moving themselves out of the hole they have put themselves in,” Moroe added.
“We are worried that they may not be able to host the Test. I’d like to think that by sitting around the table - us working together with them as the mother body - that we make sure the Test stays there. That includes getting the city (council) in as well. There is a big construction project happening there, and there are obviously issues of safety.”
Gauteng meanwhile continues to be entangled in a seemingly endless political mess that has its roots in a lack of trust between clubs of different racial backgrounds. Various interim presidents, boards and administrators have overseen its affairs since unity, and in the last six years it has had to adhere to recommendations contained in the Langa Commission, which was established after the province had also been put into administration six years ago.
That commission was run by the former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Pius Langa and created a specific a specific racial composition for the Gauteng Board, a system that was supposed to remain in place until this year’s AGM. It was hoped that racial tension could be overcome. It didn’t work, with the Central Gauteng Lions having to adjourn its AGM.
Now another judge - Bernard Ngoepe - the former judge president of North and South Gauteng High Court - has been roped in by Cricket SA, to once again try and resolve Gauteng’s administrative problems. “Cricket SA have availed Judge Ngoepe to Gauteng, to gather all the information from all of Gauteng’s affiliates, to map the way forward post the Langa recommendations and how everyone wants to see cricket being administered,” Moroe said this week.
“Obviously there are a lot of different views, some members of Gauteng believe the board hasn’t executed instructions from the shareholders as well as they should have. And we felt it was necessary to bring in someone independent to listen to everybody, compile a document and give recommendations on the way forward. We will help them in hosting an AGM and then deciding what they want to do post that AGM.”
Ngoepe has already hosted one meeting with stakeholders, and Moroe hopes that those stakeholders are “mature enough,” to eventually make a decision about how to get the province’s cricket administration moving forward in a unified manner.