Former CEO Haroon Lorgat named in nine-member interim Cricket South Africa board

Johannesburg: Former CEO Haroon Lorgat was on Friday named in a nine-member interim board to run crisis-ridden Cricket South Africa (CSA). The new interim board, which has been appointed by the government, will be chaired by Judge Zak Yaqoob and also includes former batsman Andre Odendaal and South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) president Omphile Ramela. Other members include Stavros Nikalo, Judith February, Andile Dawn Mbatha, Xolani Vonya and Nkeko Caroline Mampuru. The development comes after the entire 10-member Board of Directors resigned on Monday. The en masse resignation had come after several calls in the past months from a range of stakeholders, including the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), for the Board of Directors to go. “The interim board will keep the game running and expeditiously deal with governance and structures,” South Africa’s sports minister Nathi Mthethwa announced. The minister had given CSA time until Tuesday to provide him with reasons not to use the National Sports and Recreation Act to intervene, while also issuing a notice to the ICC that he would be wading in to CSA in a bid to reform the organisation. “It dawned on me that no matter how long we nudge cricket, no matter how long we delay the inevitable, we will be faced with it,” Mthethwa said. “There was no way that Cricket South Africa was in a position to self-correct. When I decided to intervene, I decided as a matter of courtesy to inform the ICC. “This team is going to look into everything, including the decisions that have been taken that resulted in the board resigning,” Mthethwa added. Lorgat served as CSA’s CEO from 2013 to 2017. He was lauded for restoring the reputation of cricket and for his excellent work. He was supposed to continue as CEO until 2019 but stepped down in September 2017. Yacoob is a former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa while February is a lawyer and governance specialist.