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Tussle between Sports Ministry, CSA looms large on South Africa-England series

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The upcoming England tour of South Africa is under serious threat as Cricket South Africa faces the prospect of losing the status of the Cricket’s governing body in the country. The beleaguered cricket board was asked by the South African sports minister Nathi Mthethwa to allow the functioning of an interim board levied by him. 

The CSA Members’ Council that comprises presidents of all 14 provincial sides met yesterday to discuss the proposal of an interim board by the Sports Minister and decided against approving it. Minister Mthethwa followed it up with an ultimatum that if the CSA council does not give up and ratify the interim board, the Sports Ministry will impose a sanction on the board, withdrawing its rights of being the official governing body in the country.

Addressing a press conference, Judge Zak Yacoob, who has been assigned the task of heading the interim board, said if the CSA does not take a decision on accepting the functioning of the board structured by the Sports Ministry, England team will be asked to halt their plans of coming to the rainbow nation.

"I don't know what the thinking is in England but if the Members Council does not take a proper decision this evening, England will probably be seriously discouraged from coming," Judge Zak Yacoob said to the media.

Yacoob stressed that the CSA must weigh in options in terms of disadvantage and find out by itself that approving the interim board will bring a lot less of damage than the facing the ire of sanctions by the Sports Ministry.

Yacoob also urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to not view this imposition of the interim board as a form of government interference that may attract sanctions from the global governing body, as well as the ICC which does not accept any form of government interference for its member cricket boards. However, he highlighted that in his views some of the CSA officials have hinted that they would formally intimate ICC about interference from the government and called the move a continuation of misleading attitude. 

Yacoob also said that there is a possibility of personal communication from him to ICC and asking for no action at this point of time. "I am quite happy to personally approach the ICC in order to persuade them that the minister's conduct does not amount to interference because it does not.," Yacoob said in his willingness to address the threat of sanctions from ICC. However, he put the onus of ICC sanctions on the CSA and said, "If the ICC steps in now, it would be because the Members' Council improperly resisted a reasonable effort to fix things.”

The England cricket team is due to arrive in South Africa on November 16  and after a quarantine period of 10 days, they are scheduled to take on the South African side led by Quinton de Kock from November 27.

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