All Cricket South Africa (CSA) board members left their positions on Monday (October 26) with the resignation of the four officials that followed in their departure the six others who had quit posts the previous day. Thus, clearing the road for the South African government to now run the sport within the country.
CSA's acting president Beresford Williams' resignation was followed by that of Angelo Carolissen, Donovan May, Tebogo Siko, John Mogodi and Dheven Dharmalingham, which had left only Zola Thamae, Marius Schoeman, Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw and Vuyokazi Memani-Sedile on their posts. But the board has now confirmed their exit as well.
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"After the Members’ Council had deliberated and resolved that in order to best serve the interest of cricket in South Africa, the entire Board should resign - which they did. All Independent and Non-Independent Directors have now resigned," CSA tweeted.
The development comes as a response to longstanding calls from all stakeholders for the board to go and on the eve of the last date when CSA was to tell sports minister Nathi Mthethwa why they shouldn't interfere in the governance of the game.
"Mthethwa first gave the job to the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), which in September told CSA's now former board and key executives to step aside while a task team investigated the game's ills," a Cricbuzz report stated.
"The board refused, and left SASCOC with the impression that it would unleash lawyers to avoid being usurped. SASCOC passed the buck back to Mthethwa, who gave CSA until close of business on October 27 to argue against him taking action against it - which could include removing the Proteas from the international arena."
"Whether the board's resignation en masse will be enough to stop Mthethwa from exercising the more extreme aspects of his authority remains to be seen, especially as executive staff like acting chief executive Kugandrie Govender, director of cricket Graeme Smith and company secretary Welsh Gwaza appear to be still in their positions."
Rihan Richards is now learnt to be in chief control of cricket within the rainbow nation. Richards was positioned at the newly created post of president of the members council, considered CSA's highest authority, on Sunday (October 25).
It remains to be seen who exactly will sit in the interim committee, even though "there seems to be support for a senior player representative and an ICC voice", and whether CSA will have the control back after the board's December 5 dated annual meeting.
The government take over will be a direct breach of the ICC regulation that doesn't allow for any such interference, leaving South Africa vulnerable of being suspended from international cricket in the near future.
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
