England tour of South Africa under threat, interim CSA board member claims

Zak Yacoob told a press conference that England could be advised not to fly out for their three-ODI, three-T20 campaign, depending on the outcome of a members council meeting on Friday evening

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England's white-ball tour of South Africa could be called off at the last minute amid Cricket South Africa's governance crisis.

Interim CSA board leader Zak Yacoob told a press conference that England may be advised not to fly out for their three-ODI, three-T20 campaign, depending on the outcome of a members council meeting on Friday evening.

The members council - the most senior decision-making body in the CSA structure - earlier this week rejected the government-approved interim board, leaving the sport at political loggerheads.

Sports minister Nathi Mthethwa has subsquently threatened sanctions on CSA, including stripping them of the right to call themselves the game's official governing body in the country, if the interim board is not approved.

The members council, consisting of 14 provincial presidents, claim they are unable to work alongside the interim board, and have raised questions over a potential conflict of interest involving one member - Haroon Lorgat - as well as other constitutional concerns.

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Should Mthethwa take away CSA's official status, there would not be an official South Africa team to face England, rendering the matches in Cape Town and Paarl obsolete. 

"I don't know what the thinking is in England, but I have no doubt that if the members council doesn't take a proper decision this evening England will probably be seriously discouraged from coming," Yacoob said on Friday.

England are due to fly to South Africa on Monday evening, before spending 10 days in quarantine ahead of the first match of the T20 series on November 27.

The ECB have yet to receive any formal correspondence from their counterparts in South Africa about potential problems surrounding the tour, and continue to plan for their departure next week.

According to reports in South Africa, the members council is due to meet at 5pm GMT. 

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