Cricket South Africa has appointed an independent board after dissolving the interim board, which the country’s sports ministry had appointed in November last year to look after the running of the sport.
Norman Arendse (former CSA president), Andrew Hudson (former convenor of selectors), Steven Budlender SC (advocate), Dugmore Lushaba, Andisa Ntsubane (marketing and communications expert), Mark Rayner (former Multichoice CEO), and Muditambi Ravele are the independent members of the new board.
Among the non-independent members feature Daniel Govender (Kwa-Zulu Natal), Craig Nel (Mpumalanga Cricket Union), John Mogodi (Limpopo Province), Tebogo Siko (Northerns), Simphiwe Ndzundzu (Border).
The new board now has the responsibility to run the sport and take decisions till September, when CSA will be hosting its AGM and decide its future course of action.
“It is highly appropriate that we have reached this historic moment in the transformation of our governance model as we prepared to celebrate the 30th birthday of Cricket South Africa (CSA) or the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) as it was originally known in just over two weeks’ time,”
Stavros Nicolaou, the outgoing board chairman, was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Nicolaou added that the “Memorandum of Incorporation is a document we can all embrace with pride”, as the board will now be in a position to “execute best governance practices” and take South African cricket forward.
While the appointment of the independent board was good news for CSA, it immediately followed a sad realisation of the losses suffered in the previous financial year. CSA lost Rand 250 million (US$ 17.8 million) in 2020-2021, majorly due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the number of matches, series that were affected by it.
South Africa could only play the T20I leg of their planned limited-overs series at home against England in December after the hosts went back without contesting the ODIs due to a bio-bubble breach.
Australia decided not to travel to South Africa for their three-Test series in March, before India also cancelled their proposed three-match T20I series in August, given their Test assignment in the UK ahead of the T20 World Cup.
