Gauteng board calls for amicable resolution

The Gauteng Cricket Board (GCB), stripped of hosting international matches at the Wanderers this year by Cricket South Africa (CSA), has said it is keen to resolve the dispute with the national board amicably and requested a meeting for the same by July 24.

In a letter to CSA, the GCB chief executive Alan Kourie invoked Article 25, whereby a dispute between an affiliate and the board will be referred to "final and binding arbitration only after the parties have attempted to resolve the dispute by negotiation or mediation".

Wanderers, Gauteng's international ground, lost three matches it was scheduled to host when England tour South Africa in November-December.

Kourie asked for a response to a letter GCB sent to the CSA's Risk and Audit Committee to investigate complaints and issues regarding CSA's contract with the Indian board and IPL. It claimed the board had dealt with its letter at a Members' Forum meeting and then "rejected with contempt" GCB's allegations of mismanagement by CSA president Gerald Majola. The GCB also said the board had demanded an apology for the allegations, which were only communicated to the association through media reports.

"The GCB is at present uncertain about the CSA internal processes that caused the Members' Forum to be convened for a matter that had been addressed to the Audit and Risk Committee … and the manner in which the GCB is expected to respond to the demands that, to date, have only been communicated to us through media reports."

The GCB expressed its willingness to hold meetings with the CSA in the presence of a mediator and requested the board to appoint one if it desired. In order to prepare for such a meeting, the GCB asked the board to send it a copy of the CSA president's statement demanding an apology, the reasons why its letter was sent to the Members' Forum, why the Risk and Audit Committee wasn't suitable for tackling the issue, why its letter was dismissed and why the hosting conditions were linked to the removal of matches when none of the other boards had accepted.

Kourie said if it did not receive a response to its latest letter it would, as per Article 25, assume CSA was "not willing to attempt to resolve the dispute/s by negotiation or mediation" and would instead request for a resolution through arbitration.