It’s all about the badge, Minister.

Around half of the subscribers to this column are resident outside South Africa but retain an interest in the country’s cricket affairs and national teams. Many have contacted me over the last year or so with various questions on a similar theme: ‘What the hell is going on over there?’

For those who reside in the Republic and have been saturated to the point of drowning by the administrative filth, you may want to look elsewhere as I attempt to break down the breakdown in the game’s leadership. And look ahead to what could happen in the immediate future.

South Africa has 14 provincial cricket unions affiliated to Cricket South Africa. Each of those unions has its own board of directors and a president elected, essentially, by the unions’ clubs. The 14 presidents then elect one of themselves to be their own president and another to be deputy. They comprise the CSA Members Council. They are, historically, amateur administrators. But they preside over every decision made by the CSA ‘executive’ and board of directors. They are the highest authority in the game. The buck stops with them.

The executive comprises full-time professionals like the CEO, the CFO, Director of Cricket and the dedicated, hard-working people in the Cricket Operations department who keep the game running.

The 12-person board of directors, which is ultimately answerable to the Members Council, includes seven members of the Members Council. Although children may not know it as ‘conflict of interest’, any 13-year-old with basic schooling could spot the problem.

The problem was also spotted by a prominent judge ten years ago. Chris Nicholson chaired a Commission of Inquiry in CSA’s administration after a financial scandal and, amongst many excellent recommendations for reform, indicated that the board should comprise a majority of independent directors.

He also stated that professional directors should be fairly compensated for their time. An independent remunerations company suggested four meetings per year at R24k each, including research and preparation time. In the last seven or eight years that annual R96k has increased to almost R400k. No change in job description. And we all know who had to approve that. It is just a single example amongst a great many which illustrate the rot which has spread through CSA’s administration for the last three years, including the appointment of a CEO who has now been dismissed and charged with corruption.

‘Rot’ isn’t my word. I borrowed it from the current Minister of Sports, Nathi Mthethwa, who lost his rag in the most serenely controlled manner at the end of last year when he led the appointment of an Interim Board to sort out the mess. Having initially agreed to the establishment of an IB, the Members Council changed its collective mind two weeks later. Mthethwa threatened to boil over but, instead, merely boiled and threatened.

“I need to state for the record that I have yet to exercise my powers of intervention accorded to me in terms of 13(5)(a) of the National Sport and Recreation Act No 110 of 1998, as amended (“the Act”). It is evident that the game of cricket is in a state of complete disarray and that my intervention in terms of the Act, would not only be warranted, but would also be justified,” he told the MC acting president Rihan Richards.

“The game has lurched from one crisis to another on an almost daily basis. Under these circumstances, I would be failing in my statutory and constitutional duty not to intervene in what is nothing other than the poor governance of a sport which is a national asset and which belongs to the people of the Republic of South Africa.

“I will not hesitate to impose the sanctions available to me in terms of the Act. I sincerely hope that it will be unnecessary for me to take such drastic steps,” he said, adding that it was imperative for the MC to ratify the appointment of the IB “…in order to get to the bottom of what is rotten in South African cricket.”

Chief amongst Mthethwa’s mandate to the IB was a change to CSA’s MOI to allow the implementation of Nicholson’s recommendations, including the establishment of a majority independent board. This is what the Members Council voted against last week – by eight votes to six.

If Mthethwa was angry five months ago, it is nothing compared to his current fury. He has not just been disrespected, he has been humiliated. Days of interaction and opinion from some of the country’s leading legal minds have yet to produce a clear course of action, at least not publicly. But while the MC prepare to squander yet more of CSA’s dwindling cash reserves and propel the organisation more quickly towards bankruptcy, the Minister is preparing to play his trump card.

Direct intervention will be complex and costly. The Sports Minister cannot, in fact, ‘prevent’ the national teams from playing international fixtures, either at home or abroad. But the government owns the Proteas emblem which is the agreed symbol of the national teams as approved by SASCOC. All he need do to bring the game to its knees would be to withdraw permission for the men’s team to wear it. In which case every international game they played thereafter would become as ‘unofficial’ as the wretched Rebel Tours of the 80s. The few remaining sponsors and broadcasters would withdraw immediately because of a breach of contract. They are committed to the real thing, not friendlies.

The Minister, of course, does not want to bring the game to its knees. He just wants it cleaned up and run professionally, as we all do. Everyone, that is, apart from the eight invidious members of the Members Council who voted for the rotten status quo.

It’s all about the emblem, Minister. Remove it if you have to.

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