“I wish and hope that CSA finds peace in the coming months and cricket takes centre stage.” – Dheven Dharmalingham after resigning from CSA’s board.
TELFORD VICE | Cape Town
PUSH finally came to shove for troubled CSA on Sunday, when acting president Beresford Williams led an exodus of six resignations from the board. The mass walkout follows months of calls from various stakeholders for the board to go, three days after it refused the latest demand that it do so, and two days before government is due to say what shape its promised intervention into the game’s affairs will take.
Williams, Angelo Carolissen, Donovan May, Tebogo Siko, John Mogodi and Dheven Dharmalingham all walked the plank. Only Zola Thamae, a non-independent, and Marius Schoeman, Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw and Vuyokazi Memani-Sedile, all independents, remain aboard the burning deck of cricket’s listing ship. But there are indications that they might also be on their way out.
Northern Cape Cricket president Rihan Richards, a former board member, has been installed as president of the members council, CSA’s highest authority where each of the 14 provinces is represented.
Williams, who assumed office when Chris Nenzani resigned in August, also left the members council — which still includes Carolissen, May, Siko and Mogodi. Whether their continued presence, and that of the four remaining board members, will prompt tough action from sports minister Nathi Mthethwa remains to be seen. Under South African law, Mthethwa has the authority to withdraw the Proteas from the international arena. But that seems unlikely as Mthethwa, along with the health and home affairs ministries, has granted permission for England to tour next month despite South Africa’s pandemic regulations keeping the borders closed to travellers from the United Kingdom.
Dharmalingham, who chaired the finance committee and first tendered his resignation on Friday, is the only non-independent board member who quit on Sunday. “I wish and hope that CSA finds peace in the coming months and cricket takes centre stage,” CSA quoted Dharmalingham as saying on its twitter account.
Peace is too ambitious a goal for an organisation that has lurched from one crisis to the next for the past three years. If they weren’t in trouble for shoddy management they were in the spotlight for questionable governance, and all against a backdrop of plummeting finances.
What will probably happen next is that Mthethwa, who has given CSA until October 27 to furnish him with reasons why he should not get involved in cricket, will order the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) to establish an interim committee to run the game until CSA’s annual meeting on December 5.
A brave new world awaits CSA, which has already been transformed from what it was on September 18, when Williams was asked at a press conference why he had not resigned. “I believe I’m still committed‚ I’m passionate‚ and can still contribute and serve the game. I choose not to go. We as a board and as collective leadership have dealt with matters head-on and I do believe we’re moving forward as a collective. I’ll continue to serve until such time as the members council decides otherwise. I took a decision that I either move on or I continue to serve. I decided on the latter to serve the game that I’m passionate about. I’ve been a servant of the game at various levels. If there was anything in which I believe I acted irresponsibly or not in the interests of the game as a director‚ I would have moved on.”
It appears Williams felt that way going into Thursday’s meeting of the members council, where the entire board was asked to resign and reportedly refused. What a difference three days makes.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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