After 12 months of meetings, debates and reports about sustainability, SA cricket’s domestic structure will remain unchanged, with savings nowhere close to the target of R200m some senior officials and the players’ union believe Cricket South Africa (CSA) needs to make.
Next season will see South African cricket continue with the 15-team provincial structure, with cost cuttings only happening on the margins, and a proposed reduction in the number of professional contracts still under discussion.
“We’re unlikely to get to the R200m,” said CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki.
The organisation began a sustainability drive last year after financial projections for the next decade indicated it would be earning less money from its International Cricket Council (ICC) grant.
The reason is that the ICC’s next set of international broadcast rights — which will kick in after 2027 — are expected to be lower than the last cycle.
Moseki confirmed that the ICC had informed all the national affiliates to expect less money than previous amounts.
“We’re aware of the dynamics that are affecting cricket and we have to be flexible to changes taking place elsewhere.”
CSA took home R378m as part of its share of ICC broadcast revenue, but that figure could drop by 30% in a few years.
Provincial cricket unions are still awaiting the full scope of the savings CSA wants to make. Most notably, for the provinces, there are concerns about player contracts.
“I’m in the dark,” said a CEO of a Division 2 union who asked not to be named.
“I don’t know how many players to contract or the nature of the players I can contract.”
Division 2 unions are allowed to contract 11 players, but Moseki said CSA was wary of unions signing older players to help their promotion prospects. CSA and the players union, the South African Cricketers Association, will hold talks about the next memorandum of understanding, part of which determines remuneration for players and how many players provinces can contract.
Moseki said limits might be placed on the number of players over the age of 30 provinces can contract.
“We’re developing these youngsters, and we need to provide opportunities for them to be signed.”
We’re unlikely to get to the R200m
— Pholetsi Moseki, CSA CEO
CSA is looking at greater efficiency as one way to save money, which may include changes to the schedule and realigning competitions and formats better and thus saving on travel costs.
However, many senior officials feel those steps don’t go far enough.
“It’s a farce. You have the same number of unions, so your cost basis stays the same. Saving a few rands on travel doesn’t add up to R200m,” said a senior provincial official.
The only possible means to achieve those types of savings was to cut the number of professional teams, with eight instead of the current 15 seen as the ideal figure.
However, the smaller unions are not in favour of that, though many struggle to make ends meet.
“Some of our members have cut themselves to the bone,” Moseki admitted.
Another provincial official said, besides the promotion/relegation across the two divisions now being conducted over two years instead of one, he’d still not heard an outcome to all the talks that occurred last year regarding sustainability.
Promotion/relegation was a controversial topic, and in a fiery meeting late last year, unions such as Central Gauteng, Northerns, Western Province and KwaZulu-Natal asked that it be reviewed.
They stand to lose millions in sponsorships if relegated to Division 2 but made the argument that they’d lost several players to the Proteas and the SA A teams which toured the subcontinent last year and received no form of compensation from CSA.
A proposal that teams who produced players for the Proteas should be given a point for each player on the promotion/relegation log was shot down, as was another about including governance and standard of facilities as part of the criteria to determine whether teams could rise to Division 1 status.
Moseki said CSA needed to be wary of forces beyond the organisation’s control, which could further impact the sport’s finances. That included a stronger rand, which impacts CSA as it does its business in dollars, meaning fewer rands.
Having projected the rand would remain at R18 to the dollar, the current exchange rate of R16.40 also has a negligible effect on the books.
“It’s an example of how we need to be vigilant,” said Moseki.
“For now we know what will happen for the next two years. But in four years we may need to review, maybe look at restructuring again.” – TimesLIVE