How I fell out of love with SA cricket

By Muhammad Choonara

I was seven years old; I remember Clive Rice and his team being paraded around Kolkata with garlands around their necks. Millions of Indians took to the streets to welcome the South African cricket team. I had no idea what cricket was, we grew up in a soccer home, Chelsea, Man United and Liverpool were the teams we idolised. This was something new to many South Africans, but many of us took the cricketers to heart. They were from our country, we had a team.

A few months later our team made their debut at the Cricket World Cup. How can we forget the heartache of 22 runs from one ball? I still picture Brian McMillan playing the ball away for one run. I remember the Andrew Hudson century against the Windies, the heartache of the 1996 World Cup. In 1999, Zulu and AD broke our hearts once again; Hersh “Dropped the Cup”. 2003 was supposed to be our year, but we choked again. There were some great days as well, the 438 game at the Wanderers, the Test series wins in India, England and Australia. This was a time when the cricketers did all the talking on the field.

Forward a few years, we were lucky to host the IPL. South Africa showed the world how to do it, at short notice we hosted a magnificent tournament. But something wasn’t right; murmurs of secret bonuses, palace coups were appearing in the media. Our beloved game was being dragged through the mud; the Gauteng Cricket Board lost its rights to host the Proteas. Cricket was in a shambles and we could all see it except the powerful men and women at CSA. Cricket always seemed to be the sport that united us.

During the last few months we’ve seen Mtutuzeli Nyoka, being fired twice for asking too many questions, for questioning the motives of the all-powerful Gerald Majola and his cronies. Majola has been the chief executive of CSA for almost 10 years now, in this time SA have not won a single ICC tournament. In any normal company the chief executive would’ve been fired. He argues that the CSA is on a sound financial foot now. The last time I checked cricket was played on the field, not the balance sheet. This is beside the point that Majola has been accused of serious corruption!

The honourable minister has stepped in, hopefully heads will roll and the love I had for the game can come back.

Nyoka said: “There are thousands and thousands of people in this country who care about cricket and don’t want to take a cent from the game. From an administrative side there is a lot of work to be done to restore the trust of the public. A lot of serious damage has been done to the leadership’s reputation.”

I couldn’t agree more, Eastern Province cricket want to appoint a convicted fraudster as head of their union and the CSA doesn’t seem too perturbed about it. It would be nice for us to make up our own minds with regards to the KPMG report or even the legal opinion that CSA sought on the report. But as long as we keep attending the games the CSA doesn’t seem to give a damn. Maybe by boycotting the matches and any CSA sponsors, Majola might be fired!

For now I’m waiting for the next googly to be spun from the wonderful people at CSA; they seem to be a very powerful group of people, threats to the minister, withdrawal of ads on a well-known radio station, wonderful social media interaction — they managing to fill stadiums. Now is the time for the public to wake up, let’s hurt the CSA where it matters most. For many years Safa was the main mampara when it came to shooting yourself in the foot, despite the Afcon shenanigans, the CSA is beginning to give it a run for its money.