South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), which is the controlling body for all high-performance sport in the country, ha suspended Cricket South Africa (CSA) and instructed all the board members and senior executives to stop functioning.

According to a report carried by Cricbuzz, the SASCOC will overlook the cricket operations in the country with a new task team, while an investigation is being conducted into the daily affairs of CSA.

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CSA members — including acting CEO Kugandrie Govender, company secretary Welsh Gwaza and acting chief commercial officer Thamie Mthembu — will no longer be involved in the day-to-day running of the cricket body.

The panel will make findings and recommendations to SASCOC and CSA’s Members’ Council within one month of the finalisation of the members of the task team.

The report has also quoted a letter from SASCOC to the CSA where the former alleged “many instances of maladministration and malpractice that have occurred since at least December 2019”. It is reported that the SASCOC decided unanimously at a board meeting on Tuesday to take control of the CSA.

Last month, CSA had terminated its former CEO Thabang Moroe, almost nine months after he was suspended in December 2019. Moroe was fired on the basis of a forensic report which revealed “acts of serious misconduct”. However, the CSA has not made the report available publicly or to SASCOC.

The move of SASCOC taking control over the CSA could fall foul of the ICC’s rules on government interference and lead to the national team being kicked out of the game at international level.

In a statement, CSA has however said that “it does not agree with the resolution taken by SASCOC and has not had the opportunity to engage with SASCOC on various issues raised in the communication”.

“…CSA is taking legal advice regarding the basis on which SASCOC has sought to intervene in the business affairs of CSA. CSA does, however, commit to engaging further with SASCOC to understand its position and to find common ground with it in the best interests of cricket,” the statement read.

“The Members’ Council and the Directors of the Board of CSA will hold a joint workshop this weekend to discuss critical matters,” it added.

The development leaves cricket in South Africa at an uncertain juncture, with no fixtures finalised for the coming season which is due to start imminently after the Covid-19 hiatus.

It is believed that this will not affect South African players’ participation at the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) or other competitions.

With IANS inputs