Cricket South Africa (
CSA) has made a strong move in the war to be the most ridiculous cricket governing body in the world. Don't forget this is big-league stuff - cricket's governing bodies are strong contenders for
The World's Worst Sports Governing Body.
Following on from brilliant efforts by the ECB[1], the WICB[2] and the ICC[3], CSA have appointed the likeable
Ashwell Prince as the stand-in captain for the next Test Match then
relieved him of the captaincy 24 hours later, appointing one of the world's least popular cricketers in his place -
Jacques Kallis.
This is on top of moving him from his favoured middle-order position to open the batting in place of the injured
Graeme Smith. And dropping
Neil Mackenzie for the crime of scoring 1073 runs in 2008 at an average of 50+.
Moves like this always reveal underlying tensions in the governing body and team management. In this case the arrival of
Mike Procter as the head of selectors seems to have been the catalyst. But it's unfair to blame Procter for this collapse into incompetence. Somebody appointed him (
Gerald Majola presumably).
CSA needs to get its act together quickly, or the relocated
ICC Champions Trophy will join the long list of international tournaments that have made cricket a laughing stock in world sport.
[1] The England & Wales Cricket Board (
ECB) quite appropriately conceals the Welsh element from its abbreviation since cricket is a long tail sport in the principality. Notwithstanding this, the ECB have chosen the hotly-anticipated
2009 Ashes series to introduce a new venue to the Test Match roster. One that is smaller than all the other venues on the circuit. One that is not even the largest stadium in its town, or even the second largest. One that is in
Wales.
[2] Where to start? The West Indies Cricket Board (
WICB) is responsible for squandering the revenue from the
2007 World Cup and Sir Allen Stanford's
brief flirtation with cricket in the region. The result has been
white-elephant stadiums in places that ordinary West Indians can't get to and which
aren't even fit to play the game.
CLR James would weep, as should everybody else.
[3] Venal
and incompetent, the
International Cricket Council is dominated by Indian television revenue making it difficult for it to take a neutral view of world cricket.
Incapable of running a decent tournament itself, it tries to avoid blame for other international cricket disasters by
disassociating itself from, well, international cricket.