Norman Arendse the president of Cricket South Africa has submitted his resignation from the post although he has two years left to complete the term. The reason of doing so is that at no stage did he enjoy the complete confidence and trust of the 11 affiliates or the Chief Executive Officer Gerald Majola. On receiving the resignation Majola’s immediate reaction was of regret and surprise. He said that Arendse had never given any hint regarding the resignation.
Arendse’s statement
In Cape Town Arendse made a statement saying that it was crucial that the incumbent of the post of President should have the absolute confidence and trust of the Chief Executive Offier as well as the eleven affiliates who can be referred to as the custodians of the play. At present as he had neither of these it is not practical that he should enjoy constitutional protection till his 3 year term finishes in August 2010. Arendse added that the truth was that he was chosen as the president of Cricket South Africa unopposed for a 3 year term in August 2007. However the Chief Executive Officer was of the opinion that the President is simply a ceremonial head and the duty of the President is to be present at functions, attend matches and preside over meetings. On the contrary Arendse had the opinion that as the board has employed the Chief Executive Officer he is accountable to it. Also in between meetings the President represents the Board and as a consequence the Chief Executive Officer is accountable to the President. Thus there were considerable differences between the outlooks of the President and the Chief Executive Officer. Due to this the relationship between Arendse and Majola were broken down in an irretrievable fashion. If the two would continue in this fashion there was a peril that the game of cricket would have to face a crisis and would be maligned.
Majola’s statement
Majola made it clear that he was astonished that Arendse had said that there were irretrievable differences between him and Majola and those were one of the causes of the resignation. Majola added that although there were differences between him and Arendse they were regarding the style of management and were not irretrievable. He also said that he does not agree with Arendse regarding not respecting the post of President. His office used to function exactly as per the corporate governance regulations that have been listed in the King 2 Code of Business Conduct. This was inclusive of the relationship between the operations and policy.
Arendse commented that the affiliates like KwaZulu-Natal, Border, Eastern Province, Boland and Western Province supported the transformation in cricket. However such an approach was not seen in case of other affiliates and in their case there was a total dearth of transformation which appeared like a foreign notion. These differences were exploited by the Chief Executive Officer and as a result six affiliates gave a clear indication that they did not have confidence in Arendse. The charges which these affiliates had against Arendse were the transformation agenda and the demand that the Chief Executive Officer should be accountable to the post of President.
