Majola claims conspiracy to oust him

JOHANNESBURG: Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola, who has refused to resign following investigation into allegations that he paid himself and other CSA staff huge IPL 2 bonuses without informing the board, on Friday claimed that "outside forces" are out to oust him.

"There must be something out there, because the entire board was unanimous and if they take a decision and then somewhere else there is another decision taken, then there must be something out there which is not operative in cricket," Majola said at a briefing by CSA on Friday.

"I don't know (who they are). I wish you could tell me," Majola said, two days after the Nicholson inquiry into the financial affairs of CSA suspended its work until January.

The inquiry was instituted by sports minister Fikile Mbalula following almost two years of wrangling over the IPL bonus, which has seen the former president of CSA, Mtutuzeli Nyoka, ousted twice after he called for an independent inquiry into the matter.

Majola also repeated his admission to the Nicholson inquiry that he had not complied with corporate governance laws regarding the bonuses by not adhering to section 234 of the Companies Act, although he added that he had followed the same processes after the IPL as he had done for the bonuses in the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2009 Champions Trophy.

The IPL's second edition was hosted in South Africa because of security concerns around elections in India at the time.

Clearly irked by questions on whether he should resign because of the damage done to CSA's reputation, Majola wanted to know what the damage was.

Majola appeared to be oblivious to the fact that as the bonus saga dragged on, sponsors shied away from CSA and that complaints have been mounting at grassroots level about the lack of funds for developmental cricket.

Acting president of CSA AK Khan however, agreed that there has been damage done to the body's reputation.

"I would be naive to tell you that there is no damage, and I would be dishonest. Yes, there is reputational damage, there are relationships that have been damaged," Khan said, adding that CSA was working hard at addressing this with all the stakeholders, including the media.

Majola also denied knowledge of claims that there were missing pages in the IPL contract, which the provincial Gauteng Cricket Board had asked to see and received a threat instead from CSA of having international games taken away from the Wanderers stadium as punishment.

"There was nothing to hide in that contract," Majola said.

Khan would not confirm that the board would accept the findings of the Nicholson inquiry, expected to be ready by the end of February.