The Great Gamble
There was a time, not too long ago, when the mere mention of money was anathema in sports ~ professionals were allowed in Wimbledon for the first time in 1968, and in the Olympics only from 1988.
After the organisation was taken over by the country’s Olympics body, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has suffered another blow with their biggest remaining sponsor, Momentum, deciding to walks away after April 2021.
According to a report carried by ESPNcricinfo, the financial services company, which was South Africa’s ODI sponsor, has confirmed that it will not renew the deal with CSA after current contract expires in April next year.
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Apart from the ODIs, Momentum was also the sponsors of the franchise one-day cup, the national club championships, the under-13, under-15 and under-17 school’s weeks and development initiatives including the Momentum Friendship Games and the eKasi Challenge.
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However, the company will continue to sponsor the national women’s team until 2023.
In a statement, the company has informed that it is “not satisfied with the current state of affairs at CSA regarding governance and other reputational issues”.
“We will continue our dialogue with CSA to keep them accountable to do the right thing,” Carel Bosman, head of sponsorships at Momentum said. “We all want to see a governing body that is run professionally and ethically, and one that considers all stakeholders to the game.”
Momentum has become the second major sponsor to cut ties with Cricket South Africa after Standard Bank opted not to continue their support of the Test team in December last year.
The development comes at a time after South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), which is the controlling body for all high-performance sport in the country, suspended Cricket South Africa (CSA) last week and instructed all the board members and senior executives to stop functioning.
SASCOC is now overlooking the cricket operations in the country with a new task team, while an investigation is being conducted into the daily affairs of CSA.
CSA members — including acting CEO Kugandrie Govender, company secretary Welsh Gwaza and acting chief commercial officer Thamie Mthembu — have been asked to step down from their positions.
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