The independent administrators appointed by Cricket SA (CSA) last year to oversee reform at the Border and Northern Cape cricket unions need more time to complete their work.
Greg Fredericks, assigned to Border and Jesse Chellan to Northern Cape will meet with CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki and CFO Tjaart van der Walt on Wednesday to outline why they need more time to fix problems at the troubled unions.
When Moseki appointed the pair in February 2025, it was for a period of one year. CSA made that decision after both unions failed to meet obligations outlined in CSA Regulations, including failure to timeously submit unqualified audited financial statements and concerns around the general lack of adherence to standard governance practices.
“I will need a few more months,” said Fredericks, a veteran sports administrator who also oversaw stabilisation at the Central Gauteng Lions, after a protracted period of infighting at that union.
Similar request
Chellan will make a similar request and, like Fredericks, said key appointments still needed to be made.
“We‘re absolutely not done. We have to rebuild the governance structure. Obviously we need to hear (CSA’s) view on what they think needs to be done,” he said.
Fredericks said they expected to be given a clean audit for the 2025/26 financial year, which will be the first since 2020. “We’ve also managed to resettle an original R20m debt with Sars and need to pay R7m,” he said.
The East London-headquartered union also needs to appoint a CEO but must await the outcome of a high court order pending a case brought by the former CEO Omphile Ramela, in which he demands to be reappointed.
Border also needs a new board. While issues around finances are stabilising, Fredericks admits, finding sponsors is challenging. “No one has money in the Eastern Cape. But I’m not stopping; I will keep knocking on doors,” he said.
Enthusiasm for rugby
Fredericks is motivated by the enthusiasm for the sport in the region, especially among Africans.
“I was at the ‘slaughter the sheep’ festival in Healdtown, and it was the biggest attended game besides an SA20 match this season. I couldn’t believe what I saw. The enthusiasm for cricket among black Africans in rural areas here is too strong; we can’t afford to lose that.”
It’s because of that fandom that Fredericks is loath to support suggestions of domestic restructuring that might see unions like Border and Northern Cape become amateur, with less money directed to the areas by CSA.
“There is no other province or region where cricket has as many black African followers from rural areas as the Eastern Cape,” Fredericks added.
Northern Cape Cricket also needs to appoint a CEO, while the union is looking at strengthening financial structures.
Last year CSA dismissed the union’s former CEO Thapelo January and former director and finance committee chair Mbulelo Bosman, following a forensic investigation that uncovered serious financial mismanagement, misconduct, and “general governance breaches” by the two.
“While I think we need more time, I also think we can appoint good people from the Northern Cape to operate the union. I won’t need to be as hands-on [as in the last year],” said Chellan.
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