Now it is Crooked SA

Sport on by Mogan Segadavan

CRICKET is now more than just a game.
It is now a mega business and a passport to untold wealth both above board and under the table.
With the advent of the Bollywood-style Indian Professional League many South African cricketers – some not even fully fledged Proteas – have become millionaires overnight.
And our administrators are not far behind as they jostle each other for the kill. Many are becoming filthy rich for doing things we did for mahala over the years.
The saga of the R1.8-million the cricket body’s CEO, Gerald Majola, paid himself is well documented. And according to auditors KPMG’s report Cricket SA also paid the travel costs of Majola’s wife and children.
For his indiscretion the cricket body told Majola he was a naughty boy and that he should stand in the corner.
On Saturday Cricket SA’s board axed its president Dr Mtutuzeli Nyoka (for the second time) for bringing the body into dispute.
Nyoka, childhood friend of Majola, has been leading a long battle to get to the bottom of the bonus scandal.
The word on the street is Nyoka is not a victim of an administration bent on destroying itself but a victim of a clandestine war being waged by a group of former (white) administrators who are all peeved they are now out in the cold while the gravy train is running on over-load.
Two former national and three Eastern Province administrators are allegedly manipulating Majola from behind the scenes to get at Majola because he had refused to be mentored by his predecessor ahead of the Cricket World Cup staged in South Africa.
“We are going to crush the head of the inyoka (snake in isiXhosa),” said another source.
Meanwhile Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula announced he would appoint a committee headed by a retired judge to look at the damning report compiled by the auditors and report back by Christmas.
It has since been reported in the media that he had received threatening calls asking him to “leave it alone because it would be very dangerous” for him.
However he has refused to be cowed by the threats.
Whether anything will come out of the probe remains to be seen. Remember the King Commission inquiry over the Hansie Cronjie bribery scandal?
Rugby, athletics, boxing, soccer and now cricket have all made the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Our sport is well and truly in the k***.