JOHANNESBURG - Cricket SA’s Members Council finally agreed that the recommendations of the Nicholson Inquiry, made a decade ago, can be implemented allowing the restructuring of the organisation’s administration to take place.
The Members Council and CSA’s Interim Board jointly met with Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Friday evening to inform him of the decision.
The Members Council - CSA’s highest decision-making body, comprising the 14 provincial presidents - has been locked in a series of meetings over the last week after being instructed by Mthethwa to make changes in line with the recommendations of the Nicholson Inquiry, specifically as they relate to the number of independent directors that will serve on the new board and that board’s chairman.
ALSO READ: Nathi Mthethwa’s stance on Cricket South Africa remains very clear
Cricket SA’s new board of directors will be made up of a majority of independent members, and the chairman will be an independent as well.
Mthethwa had mandated the Interim Board, chaired by Stavros Nicolaou, the Aspen Pharmacare Group's Senior Executive responsible for Strategic Trade Development, to ensure the recommendations of that inquiry are implemented.
As it stands, there is now a majority of provincial presidents who support the implementation of the Nicholson recommendations, a relatively quick and big change from two weeks ago, when the Members Council voted 8-6 to ignore that commission's findings.
IOL Sport understands that nine presidents are now in favour of implementing the Nicholson recommendations.
The Members Council infuriated Mthethwa, with its initial vote. Mthethwa, who last week stated he’d shown “an extraordinary demonstration of patience,” with CSA, appointed an Interim Board last October, to resolve the administrative crisis CSA found itself in over the last few years.
It is believed the position of chairman caused heated debate within the Members Council in the last few days and a last ditch attempt was made at Friday’s meeting to try and persuade Mthethwa that the chairman should come from the ranks of the provincial presidents.
But that move ultimately failed.
The ministry said in a statement released on Saturday morning, that some details still need to be worked out, but the decision allowed for a revision of the Memorandum of Incorporation that will ensure that CSA’s new board will be made up of a majority of independent directors and that the federation’s Annual General Meeting can finally go ahead.
“As has been my position since the appointment of the Interim Board, I regard this breakthrough as the end of my involvement in the current process,” said Mthethwa.
“As the two points of difference were the main obstacles threatening the April 2021 AGM, I have no doubt that the requisite numbers needed to adopt the MOI by the AGM will be achieved. The ball is now in the hands of the two parties”.
ALSO READ: Cricket South Africa crisis is erupting on many fronts
The agreement also allows the Interim Board sufficient time to complete the remaining elements of its mandate and a report will be delivered before the AGM outlining the progress and findings it made over the course of its tenure.
The Interim Board will then be dissolved.