Cricket South Africa have not been able to secure a sponsor for the Twenty20 series against Australia and have given the exclusive title rights to a charity organisation instead
ESPNcricinfo staff11-Oct-2011Cricket South Africa have not been able to secure a sponsor for the Twenty20 series against Australia and have given the exclusive title rights to a charity organisation instead. In the aftermath of the yet-to-be-resolved bonus scandal, corporates have veered away from associating themselves with the body, and only Castle Lager have remained as backers of the Test and ODI teams. As a result, the T20 team, all international events and two of the three domestic competitions are without sponsors.Two of CSA’s long-time sponsors, Standard Bank and the mobile communications company MTN opted out of their sponsorship agreements with cricket during the off-season. Standard Bank said the move was in line with their cancelling of all sports sponsorships, while MTN declined to give a reason for their withdrawal. Since then, the bonus scandal has dragged into its second year and CSA have been unable to bring any new company on board.Instead, CSA has given the Make a Difference (MAD) foundation the title rights for the series free of charge, and will allow the foundation to promote itself at both matches, as a way of giving back to the community. The organisation seeks to give academically talented but disadvantaged children an opportunity to get a good education, something CSA sees as closely aligned to its own development goals. “An important focus for CSA has always been in the mentoring and development of young players to become the very best cricketers in the world. And MAD shares a similar vision,” Majola said.South Africa’s ODI and T20 captain, AB de Villiers, who is not playing in the series because of a finger injury is an ambassador for MAD, after being introduced to the organisation through former rugby hero Francois Pienaar.Richard Glover, CSA’s commercial manager, said that many companies had expressed interest in sponsoring various cricket properties but have asked to hold off until a “line had been drawn under the bonus scandal”. As the season drew close, with only Castle Lager continuing their relationship, Glover remained confident that CSA would secure sponsors before the season started. On September 20, he told ESPNcricinfo that a “sponsor will definitely be announced for the T20 series” against Australia.However, the CSA’s infighting has continued, and no sponsor has been unveiled. Reliable sources have confirmed that four companies have been asked to put their negotiations with CSA on hold until their issues have been resolved. That could happen as soon as this Saturday, when president Mtutuzeli Nyoka faces a second vote of no confidence.Five of the eleven provincial unions – Gauteng, Free State, Boland, Easterns and Eastern Province – have confirmed that they will support the motion against Nyoka. Northerns has said they will vote against it, but it is understood that at least one other union is in favour of the motion, and Nyoka is set to be removed from office.That should end the ongoing battle between him and chief executive Gerald Majola which started when 4.7 million Rand ($671,428) was paid in bonuses after South Africa hosted the 2009 IPL and the Champions Trophy. The payments were not processed through CSA’s remunerations committee (Remco) and Nyoka asked for an external audit to be carried out to investigate them.CSA held an internal audit, which cleared Majola and voted Nyoka out of office unlawfully three months later. Nyoka challenged them in court and, when he was reinstated, also won the right to have CSA’s financials examined. KPMG, who conducted the inquiry, recommended that CSA seek legal advice after finding that Majola may have breached the Companies’ Act on four occasions, and opinion was sought from Advocate Azhar Bham. Majola was severely reprimanded at the AGM in August and CSA vowed to improve their corporate governance methods but denied Nyoka’s request for copies of the audit report and legal advice.They have since met Nyoka and his lawyer to show him both documents, but have also claimed that he has breached media protocol and is no longer fit to be their President. If he is removed on Saturday, CSA’s 15-month-long saga will come to an end, albeit unsatisfactorily for some, the day before the second T20 against Australia. That leaves too short a time frame to rubber-stamp the sponsorship.There is, as yet, no indication of when CSA will announce sponsors for the ODI series against Australia or the domestic one-day and twenty-over competitions. SuperSport have continued to back the first-class competition in accordance with their television rights deal.
