Cricket South Africa drowning in legal costs as troubles don't seem to end

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has been hit with a plague of its own. Head coach Mark Boucher was slammed with allegations of racism which led to other officials and former players being dragged into the case, including Graeme Smith, Enoch Nkwe and AB de Villiers.

The Social Justice and Nation Building (SJN) reports stemmed the charges. Boucher was charged with gross misconduct, accused by his former teammate Paul Adams. 

Soon enough, Boucher’s former assistant coach was asked to be a witness in the proceedings. Former captain and Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith, was also accused alongside the head coach but was later cleared of all charges.

Along with legal distress, the CSA is still recovering from the losses faced by the board due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to an insider, the two legal matters (Boucher gross misconduct case and Graeme Smith arbitration hearing) are set to cost the CSA a whopping 100 million Rand in just legal fees.

The insider stated that the CSA had already spent 50 million Rand in legal fees, and the Boucher and Smith cases will only add to the expense.

Former CSA Company Secretary Welsh Gwaza had also run into legal muddles. Gwaza was removed from the board with ‘immediate effect’ after being found guilty in a misconduct case.

Former CSA CEO Kugandrie Govender too was dismissed from her position after being found guilty in a misconduct case.

They both had appeared before Terry Motau, who won the cases against them. The CSA had spent hundreds of thousands of Rands in the two cases. 

Motau has also been appointed as the chair for Boucher’s disciplinary hearing.

The CSA also recently ran into trouble with the South Africa Players’ Association (SACA). The SACA took CSA to court at the end of May 2019, alleging that the Cricket Board’s financial forecasts for the 2018-22 broadcast rights and budgeting cycle were flawed. CSA proposed domestic restructuring would also result in SACA officials losing their jobs.

The SACA argued that rather than the forecasted R654 million expense, the CSA was set to lose around a billion rand. Following the allegations, the SACA chief executive was banned from CSA meetings. The case later led to a settlement where the CSA paid Rand 700,000 to SACA and lost almost double in legal fees.

In November 2019, the board also lost a legal battle with the Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA). And subsequently footed a 15 million Rand amount in legal cost.

The following instances have led to a joke within the cricketing fraternity ‘Why can’t the CSA be sued anymore?’ ‘Because they’ve briefed every attorney in Johannesburg.’