CSA letter thanks fans for patience

News

Cricket365
November 9, 2013

Cricket South Africa president Chris Nenzani has written a letter to fans and sponsors, thanking them for their support during the fracas surrounding the India tour, which saw relations with the BCCI drop to new lows.

CSA originally announced a bumper tour, featuring three Tests and seven ODIs, but the BCCI objected, saying they had not confirmed those fixtures. On top of that, the India board also objected to CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat's involvement.

What followed was months of wrangling and meetings, which in the end saw the tour reduced to two Tests and three ODIs, and leaving South Africa without a New Year's Test, usually a highlight on the sporting calendar.

The drama caused much upset amongst fans and even players, and CSA quickly arranged fixtures against Pakistan, following on from the series in the UAE, to try and make up for the disappointment. The letter was a further effort to smooth ruffled feathers.

It read:

<i>Dear fellow stake holders in South African cricket,</i>

I write to you today to bring you up to date with what has been a particularly testing and challenging time for all of us and that may have caused you both concern and confusion.

Now that we have completed arrangements of our international programme for the 2013/14 season with a total of five Sunfoil Test matches, six Momentum One-Day Internationals and five KFC T20 International matches, I believe we are entering a new phase that will see our cricket go from strength to strength both on and off the field of play.

The Proteas Castle Lager Test squad continues to go from strength to strength while there have been encouraging signs both from the Castle Lager ODI squad during their current series in Pakistan and the Blue Label Telecoms T20 squad during their recent tour to Sri Lanka.

The Board remains committed to the highest principles of Good Corporate Governance and will not deviate from this in any way as we continue to take decisions that are in the best interests of the way in which cricket is run.

I must also stress that the Board has the utmost confidence in our senior operational staff, who have had to handle many difficult situations over the past couple of months.

I would also like to thank everybody else who is contributing to our drive to make cricket a truly national sport and our country a nation of winners. This includes our commercial partners and, most important of all, the people of our country.

Yours in Cricket,

Chris Nenzani
<i>President and Chairman of the Board, Cricket South Africa</i>