Cricket South Africa appoint Jacques Faul as acting chief executive

He replaces Thabang Moroe, who has been suspended, pending investigations into allegations of misconduct

Cricket South Africa has appointed Jacques Faul as the governing body’s acting chief executive amid the organisation’s recent upheaval.

He replaces Thabang Moroe, who has been suspended, pending investigations into allegations of misconduct.

Moroe, who had been accused of multiple offences including “widespread credit card abuse in the office” in a letter reportedly written by Iqbal Khan – the former independent chairperson of the CSA board – to CSA president Chris Nenzani upon his own resignation, has been the subject of reports received by the governing body's social and ethics committee, and the audit and risk committee.

The reports relate to “possible failure of controls in the organisation”.

A CSA statement read: "During the course of Mr Thabang Moroe’s precautionary suspension, a forensic audit of critical aspects of the business and the conduct of management related to such aspects shall be conducted by an independent forensic team.

“In this regard, we urge all our stakeholder including sponsors, members of staff, players, volunteers and cricket fans to allow this process to unfold and we will provide updates on this matter.”

Moroe will continue to be paid during his suspension.

Faul, chief executive of the Northerns franchise, has been appointed with immediate effect, while former ICC CEO Dave Richardson will be approached and asked to help out on a short-term basis. He has already confirmed that he will not be a long-term option.

These developments follow a powerful statement released by the South Africa Cricketers' Association, which called for the resignation of the CSA board and the immediate installation of a “highly competent acting chief executive”.

Faul has seen similar before; he helped CSA out of a similar situation in 2012 when he was appointed following the dismissal of Gerald Majola.

SACA members met on Friday to discuss the alleged unlawful use of player commercial rights in the Mzansi Super League by the national governing body, as well as the possibility of industrial action. A strike during the upcoming England Test, ODI and T20I series has been ruled out.

^{Graeme Smith is set to be named CSA's director of cricket}

It was also confirmed on Saturday in a media briefing led by Cricket South Africa president Chris Nenzani that former Proteas captain Graeme Smith was close to being announced as CSA’s first director of cricket. Smith has been linked with the role for some time, but appeared to have withdrawn his interest in the post in November, citing a “frustrating process”.

“I have not developed the necessary confidence that I would be given the level of freedom and support to initiate the required changes,” he tweeted at the time.

News of his imminent incoming, however, rounds off a chaotic week that began with five journalists having their accreditation revoked by Moroe – they have since been reinstated, and has also seen multiple resignations. As well as Khan, independent board members Prof Shirley Zinn and Dawn Mokhobo have also quit.

SACA chief executive Tony Irish said: “Extremely poor leadership, both at operational level and at board level, is what has got cricket into this disastrous position.

“It is abundantly clear that there is no confidence, from any quarter amongst cricket stakeholders, in the CSA board.  No one on the board can say that he, or she, was unaware of what has been unfolding over at least the last year. It has all been happening, in many respects even publically, under the board’s very nose, and in some instances with board support.”

With England travelling to the country on December 13 for a four-match Test series, the hosts are still without a selection panel of any kind. Standard Bank, meanwhile, have announced that they will not be renewing their sponsorship deal of the Proteas.

Nenzani added that the CSA board had been instructed to fix its troubled relationship with SACA.

“We will engage the players so that we can have a common approach and common goal going forward,” he added. “CSA and SACA need to get to a point where matters are dealt with.”

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