Graeme Smith is all set to become Cricket South Africa’s Director of Cricket amid the crisis, as per the CSA president Chris Nenzani, but South African cricket’s crisis remained there, with Nenzani and his remaining board members refused to resign.
The chief executive of the SA Cricketers Association (SACA), Tony Irish asked on Friday for Nenzani and the entire board to resign tweeted: “Appalled that the president and board of CSA have taken no responsibility for cricket’s biggest crisis. Now clinging to power.”
While he was asked for clarification, Irish described his tweet as “my initial reaction.”
He said SACA was likely to prepare a detailed response within Sunday or Monday. On the other hand, Nenzani said that he had spoken to Graeme Smith on Saturday morning.
“I am happy to announce that we have engaged Graeme Smith and I am confirming that by next week Wednesday all of the negotiations around the contract terms that need to take place would have been concluded,” said Nenzani, speaking after a special board meeting of CSA, after a week of crisis for the organisation.
Read here: Seven-team Women’s IPL ‘Four Years Away’, Says Sourav Ganguly
If Smith agrees to take the job he will have around two weeks to put a selection panel and coaching staff in place before their Test series against England, starting in Centurion on December 26. Saturday’s press conference occurred after a terrible week where five leading journalists had their accreditation withdrawn.
Alongside this, a major sponsor had announced it would not renew the agreement with CSA and chief executive Thabang Moroe was also suspended on charges of misconduct. Following that, several renowned individuals, as well as the Gauteng cricket board and SACA, asked the board to resign. However, Nenzani said the issue had not been asked at a meeting of the members’ council in a meeting which began on Friday evening and continued until the early hours of Saturday as well.
“We thank them for their service and will engage in a process to fill the vacancies,” he said.
