Bid to sack SA coach blocked

JOHANNESBURG – The turmoil at the top of South African cricket deepened yesterday when the board’s chief executive overruled a move to sack coach Mickey Arthur as a selector in a row over racial quotas.

Arthur was removed from the selection panel on Saturday at a meeting of Cricket South Africa’s general council which was chaired by CSA president Norman Arendse, who has also filed a disciplinary complaint against the Proteas coach. But CSA chief executive Gerald Majola put himself on a collision course with Arendse by ruling Sunday that Arthur’s role as a selector was an integral part of his contract and the general council had acted beyond its remit.”Mickey Arthur is contracted by Cricket South Africa (Pty) Ltd, and his contracted duties include being a national selector,” Majola said in a statement on CSA’s website.”Only the board of directors of CSA (Pty) Ltd can change this, and therefore the resolution taken at General Council’s teleconference on Saturday to remove Mr Arthur from the selection process is unconstitutional.”Arendse has been gunning for Arthur following a furious row over the provisionial 14-man squad for an upcoming tour of Bangladesh which contained only four players of colour.Selections are expected to reflect so-called transformation targets that squads should contain at least seven players of colour.The squad should have been announced at the beginning of last week but Arendse refused to endorse the line-up and then became involved in a slanging match with Arthur which ended with both men filing complaints to the CSA over their alleged “abusive and disrespectful” behaviour.Nampa-AFPBut CSA chief executive Gerald Majola put himself on a collision course with Arendse by ruling Sunday that Arthur’s role as a selector was an integral part of his contract and the general council had acted beyond its remit.”Mickey Arthur is contracted by Cricket South Africa (Pty) Ltd, and his contracted duties include being a national selector,” Majola said in a statement on CSA’s website.”Only the board of directors of CSA (Pty) Ltd can change this, and therefore the resolution taken at General Council’s teleconference on Saturday to remove Mr Arthur from the selection process is unconstitutional.”Arendse has been gunning for Arthur following a furious row over the provisionial 14-man squad for an upcoming tour of Bangladesh which contained only four players of colour.Selections are expected to reflect so-called transformation targets that squads should contain at least seven players of colour.The squad should have been announced at the beginning of last week but Arendse refused to endorse the line-up and then became involved in a slanging match with Arthur which ended with both men filing complaints to the CSA over their alleged “abusive and disrespectful” behaviour.Nampa-AFP