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South Africa tour of West Indies in danger

West Indies is scheduled to host the South Africa cricket team for a two-match Test series followed by five T20 Internationals in the month of June. However, there can be a change in the plans as the South Africa government is planning to take away the rights of Cricket South Africa (CSA) as the legal organization for running cricket in the country.

This move can be inspired by the fact that CSA has denied agreeing to the new agreement passed by the government, Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI).  If the South African government refuses to consider CSA as a legal organization, then the national men’s, women’s and age-group teams will no longer have the right to wear the Proteas badge or officially represent South Africa on the international stage.

The sports minister Nathi Mthethwa is all set to intervene and exercise his rights to take a call on the future of CSA. As quoted by Cricbuzz, a government release on Sunday said sports minister Nathi Mthethwa had been “left .. with no further option but to exercise his rights in terms of section 13(5) of the Sports Act”. That law allows Mthethwa to strip federations of the privilege of calling their team’s national sides and to stop funding them.

There has been a sudden change in the attitude of CSA regarding the implementation of MOI. On April 10, the cricketing body released a statement that stated, “the majority of the members’ council [had decided to] accept the principle of a majority independent board led by an independent chairperson”. However, at a special online meeting on Saturday, only six of the 14 members voted in the favour of the new law while five voted against the motion. Since the majority didn’t agree with MOI, it couldn’t be implemented and can face serious actions from the government.