CSA inquiry report may be delayed again

Johannesburg: Final report of the inquiry into the financial affairs of Cricket South Africa (CSA) over the IPL 2 bonuses debacle may be delayed a second time.

The inquiry headed by Judge Chris Nicholson was first supposed to have its report ready for sports minister Fikile Mbalula by Christmas and was then afforded an extension to the end of February, as more witnesses testified in January after the holiday recess. Now Nicholson has advised the minister that it could be delayed further because the committee wants to study two international documents related to corporate governance in cricket made available to it which could impact on its recommendations. The first document is an independent governance review commissioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which was released last week after the inquiry was already adjourned and made available to the inquiry by CSA. The second is a report on cricket in Australia known as the Crawford-Carter report. The ICC report, written by Lord Woolf, starts off with an indictment on the current state of cricket. "Cricket is a great game. It deserves to have governance, including management and ethics, worthy of the sport. This is not the position at the present time." "The reputation of the ICC and international cricket as a whole is at risk if the right standard of boardroom behavior is not seen to be in place, both at the ICC and at each and every member board," Woolf added. At the heart of the inquiry into CSA, which is a full member of the ICC, is the breach of corporate governance that CSA chief executive Gerald Majola admitted to during his testimony at the inquiry late last year. Majola cited naivety as the reason for this, but in his testimony a fortnight ago, the leading expert on corporate governance, Judge Mervyn King, told the inquiry that he had conducted a workshop with senior CSA staff including Majola before the controversial huge IPL bonuses that Majola paid himself and other CSA staff without declaring it to the board. The second edition of the IPL was played in South Africa in 2009 because of security concerns around elections at the time in India. The bonuses have been the subject of two years of wrangling at CSA which has twice led to the ousting of President Mtutuzeli Nyoka, who questioned the bonuses. PTI