JOHANNESBURG - Cricket SA’s new Board of Directors, will make the appointment of senior management - including a CEO - one of its primary tasks as it sets out to restore trust in the organisation.
At a meeting on Tuesday night, Lawson Naidoo, one of the newly appointed independent directors was chosen as chairman of the board, with senior counsel, Steven Budlender named as Lead Director.
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Naidoo said Wednesday that in addition to filling management vacancies - which besides the CEO also includes a new Chief Commercial Officer - the Board would look into the organisation’s finances, which have suffered as a result of the Covid pandemic but also the incompetence of the previous administration.
“We need to start working on stabilising the finance, and we must investigate new revenue models,” said Naidoo, the Executive Secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution and also a founder of the Paternoster Group, an independent consultancy that provides political analysis.
Naidoo said he felt overwhelmed at the opportunity, but knows that a lot of hard work awaits the board, the majority of whom are independent in keeping with the new Memorandum of Incorporation that was instituted at the Annual General Meeting last week.
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“Now that we have fixed the administrative structure, we need to rebuild relationships with sponsors and start to source new ones.”
Cricket SA announced that it had made R250-million loss, R70-million more than anticipated, following the postponement of the England One-Day series last November and Australia’s Test tour, which was supposed to take place in April.
One area that will also be assessed is remuneration for directors, with Directors paid in the region of R230000 last year. “I can’t say yet if that will change, but it will form part of the review of our finances, in which we will go through all our expense items,” said Naidoo.
“We have to tighten our belts, and show the public and potential sponsors that we are running a tight financial ship.”
Naidoo said the Board had to to decide who would represent Cricket SA at the International Cricket Council level, but stated it was an important appointment, given how CSA had to re-establish itself at the global mother body. “It is essential to strengthen that relationship with the ICC. We need to secure tours, to generate income in a post Covid world.”
Most importantly, following years of mismanagement and maladministration, the new board has to rebuild confidence in CSA. “To regain public trust we need to rebuild relationships with all the stake-holders; players, sponsors, media and the fans. We need to be open and honest in our engagements with them,” Naidoo explained.
Cricket SA Board of Directors: Independent - Lawson Naidoo (Chairman) Steven Budlender SC (Lead Director), Andrew Hudson, Dugmore Lushaba, Andisa Ntsubane, Mark Rayner, Muditambi Ravele, Norman Arendse. Non-independent - Daniel Govender, John Mogodi, Craig Nel, Tebogo Siko, Simphiwe Ndzundzu.