Johannesburg – The battle lines between sports minister and cricket officials have been drawn, and the standoff is getting nastier by the day.
It has been 29 years since the Nelson Mandela-led ANC gave the go ahead for cricket, under the leadership of former cricketer and administrator Ali Bacher, to be admitted into the international arena, even before football. Since then, nothing has changed in cricket.
Token and toothless black presidents have been appointed to head Cricket SA (CSA) over the years with transformation being shown the middle finger, as cricket became entrenched and remained lilywhite in boardrooms and the composition of national teams.
Mthethwa has had enough of the dilly-dallying when coming to the implementation of the Nicholson Report on transformation, the day-to-day running of the sport, and most importantly, merit selection and fair and equitable opportunities for black players to represent the country that has, over the years, been thrown out of the window.
The minister is up to the tether.
After the CSA special general meeting to vote on transforming the sport was torpedoed last weekend, Mthethwa told the CSA interim board and members’ council of his intention to invoke section 13(5) of the National Sports Act because they had voted against amendments to the CSA body’s constitution.
Mthethwa said that he will inform the International Cricket Council (ICC) and explain the reasons for his actions that will see cricket activities and matches suspended, locally and internationally.
The sports minister has reiterated that cricket cannot be held to ransom by minority council members.
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