The South African Olympic body, on Thursday, suspended the country's cricket board - Cricket South Africa - taking the control of the sport entirely. The move is rightly expected to cause a potential dissection or might even see the team being kicked out from the international stage given that the ICC's rule book says no government can intervene and take over the responsibility for the cricketing activities of a country.
In a series of letters, as reported by Cricbuzz, from the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) to CSA, it was mentioned that "the CSA board and those senior executives who serve ex-officio on the board (the company secretary, the acting CEO, the CFO and the COO) are directed to step aside from the administration of CSA on full pay" pending the outcome of a month-long investigation by a task team.
It further continued, "This has manifestly caused great concern and consternation amongst your own members, former and current members of the national team of the Proteas, stakeholders, sponsors, and members of the cricket-loving public.
"There can be no doubt that this has caused cricket to lose the trust and confidence of members of the public, stakeholders, sponsors and the players represented by SACA [the South African Cricketers' Association]. All this has brought cricket into disrepute."
SASCOC is the controlling body for all high-performance sport in South Africa, and the decision was taken unanimously at a board meeting on Tuesday because of "many instances of maladministration and malpractice that have occurred since at least December 2019".
"SASCOC has attempted to address these issues in two meetings with the CSA board: one was exploratory, and the other failed to take place mainly because of the fact that CSA failed to make the... forensic report available to the SASCOC board despite promises and undertakings by CSA to do so. CSA is in receipt of our letter which records that the board's decision to make the said report available only on a limited basis to the president and board members of SASCOC, is wholly unreasonable and irrational given the apparent nature and scope of the report."
More to follow...
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Rodger Bosch
