Clash over new boss for South African cricket

South Africa (CSA) supremo Norman Arendse may be ousted with a third attempt at the presidency by the current chairman of the provincial Gauteng Cricket Board (GCB), Mthuthulezi Nyoka, The Star reported here.

But Arendse, who has faced some controversy over his views on transformation in the national side during his tenure, said any attempt to remove him would be unconstitutional.

CSA is moving towards re-registering as a Section 21 Company, which in South African law is a company which is registered to provide services and does not intend to make, or to be judged by, the profits that they make.

The re-registration of the current company controlling cricket requires that the entire board has to step down and a new board be elected in terms of corporate governance rules. In this process, nominations for the requisite board were made earlier this week, with Nyoka getting the maximum support to become president of the proposed new company.

But Arendse was not part of the nominations process, as he was away in Dubai on International Cricket Council (ICC) business. According to the Star, Arendse now wants to call a special meeting to discuss the matter ahead of the elections scheduled for Sep 26.

Although there were some views that the nominations made in the absence of Arendse were 'sinister', Nyoka, who accepted his nomination, said it had been handled with the required levels of transparency.

'The most urgent need is to unite the sport from the top down, and that I believe is one of my strengths,' said Nyoka, who lost in the bid for the presidency to the late Percy Sonn in 2001 and withdrew his nomination last year after it became clear that Arendse would emerge triumphant.

Arendse told the Cape Times that he intended staying on as president until his term expires in 2010.

'The CSA constitution only makes provision for re-elections at an annual general meeting or special general council meeting due to resignation or death,' Arendse said.

'I am not dead and have no intention of resigning and any attempt to remove me would be unconstitutional.'

Arendse, whose outspoken views on including more black players in the South African side has seen him in public spats with the chief executive of CSA, Gerald Majola, accused those trying to oust him of having their own agenda.

'These are the same anti-transformation forces which are intent on destabilizing what we are trying to achieve in this country,' he said.