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

South Africa’s sports minister Nathi Mthethwa has announced a nine-member interim board that will see the function of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) for the next three months after the entire board stepped down earlier this week.

Former CSA chief Haroon Lorgat and former South African batsman Omphile Ramela have been included in the interim board, which will be chaired by Judge Zak Yaqoob.

Besides them, the committee named by the South African government also include Andre Odendaal, Stavros Nikalo, Judith February, Andile Dawn Mbatha, Xolani Vonya and Nkeko Caroline Mampuru.

Reflecting on the development, Mthethwa stated that these nine members have been nominated by him along with the Members’ Council, and the South African Cricketers’ Association and hopefully this board would keep the game running while expeditiously dealing with governance and structures.

“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. I also thought I would give Cricket South Africa another opportunity to make representations to me as to why I should not intervene. In the interim, I heard that the board has resigned as Cricket South Africa, particularly the Members’ Council, managed to present me with constructive proposals. I applied my mind and agreed to engage with them on a collaborative process,” ESPNcricinfo quoted the South African sports minister as saying.

Lorgat had previously served as the chief of the CSA as well as the International Cricket Council (ICC) in the past. Former lef-hand batsman Ramela, on the other hand, is the president of the South African Cricketers’ Association from where he has to resign in order to avoid any conflict of interest.

While Vonya is a former president of Easterns Cricket, Odendaal had previously served as the CEO of Western Province cricket.

Nicolaou is a senior executive in the pharmaceutical industry,Mbatha is a chief financial officer of the Independent Electoral Commission, and Judith is a governance specialist and a lawyer. Mampuru is the deputy head of the special investigation unit, while Yacoob is a former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Earlier this week, the Sports minister had confirmed that he had received a formal report of the resignation of the entire board of CSA.

The board included CSA president Beresford Williams alongside Angelo Carolissen, John Mogodi, Donovan May, Tebogo Siko, Dheven Dharmalingam, Zola Thamae, John Mogodi and Donovan May.

Notably, the CSA had been struggling with governance issues following a damning internal report, which provided a long list of concerns about the actions of various staff members of the cricket board.

In September, South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), a government body which looks after all high-performance sport in the country, had ordered CSA’s board and senior executives to step aside.

This came nine months after CSA CEO Thabang Moroe was suspended from duty with full pay, with immediate effect following allegations of misconduct against him. In August, he was fired on the basis of a forensic report which revealed “acts of serious misconduct.”