Cricket
SA cricket war continues
2009-07-12 16:09
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CSA chief executive Gerald Majola (file)
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Johannesburg - The war of words between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the Gauteng Cricket Board (GCB) moved up a gear on Saturday.
This followed a defiant response from the GCB to threats made by CSA to withhold international cricket from the Wanderers Stadium.
GCB chairman Barry Skjoldhammer said in a statement on Saturday that it was not in the interests of CSA, GCB, national team, sponsors or cricket lovers to suspend allocation of international matches to the Wanderers Stadium.
"The terms and conditions that CSA is currently seeking to impose on GCB [and other provinces] would, if accepted by GCB, destroy the financial viability of the Wanderers Stadium."
"And GCB's ability to maintain the Stadium as one of cricket's great venues," said Skjoldhammer.
"This would deprive the huge number of Gauteng cricket fans access to international cricket matches."
He said the proposed CSA model would also undermine GCB's viability as a provincial cricket union that serves the interests of amateur cricket through hundreds of club league teams.
These included development programmes that reached thousand of children.
CSA president, Dr Mtutuzeli Nyoka said on Friday that no international matches would be played at the Wanderers until the GCB had apologised for allegations made against CSA chief executive Gerald Majola.
The row between CSA and the GCB erupted over complaints made by the GCB against Majola regarding the handling of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was held in South Africa earlier this year.
CSA's Members Forum, comprising all CSA's affiliates, met on Friday to discuss the GCB's complaints and to allow Majola to present an overview of the IPL tournament.
The meeting was called by Nyoka, who said after the meeting that the Forum had unanimously accepted Majola's overview and had congratulated him on outstanding work in obtaining and hosting such a prestigious event.
"The Forum rejected with contempt the allegations of mismanagement against Mr Majola, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the IPL, which were made by the Gauteng Cricket Board," Nyoka said.
He said the Forum had asked the GCB to unconditionally withdraw the allegations and to apologise to CSA's president and chief executive, as well as to the BCCI.
It had also asked the GCB to indicate what the conditions for hosting international matches at the Wanderers under the auspices of CSA were.
"Until both the apology and the hosting conditions are submitted, there will be no international matches at the Wanderers under the auspices of CSA," said Nyoka.
However, Skjoldhammer said the GCB would not respond to Nyoka until it had received a response from CSA's Audit and Risk Committee to a letter it had written on June 4.
"In that letter we stated that on the basis of information that was known to us and available to us at that time, we believed that CSA had been exposed to material financial risk by the manner in which CSA had conducted contractual negotiations with the IPL," said Skjoldhammer.
"There is nothing in Dr Nyoka's statement that addresses that issue."
Skjoldhammer said that other issues raised by the GCB included CSA's refusal to make details of its contract with the IPL known to the GCB, as well as its refusal to participate in negotiations between the GCB and the IPL.
This was though CSA was the only party with knowledge of the contract under which the IPL claimed to have acquired rights over the Wanderers Stadium, he said.
"GCB has been endeavouring to negotiate with CSA for seven years regarding the terms and conditions applicable to the hosting of international matches at the Wanderers," said Skjoldhammer.
"Throughout this time, CSA has persistently declined or failed to engage GCB in any form of direct discussions."
Regarding Nyoka's demand that the GCB apologise to the BCCI and the IPL, Skjoldhammer said there was nothing in the letter to the Audit and Risk Committee that referred to the BCCI, nor was there any evaluation or comment on the IPL's behaviour.