CSA moves closer to overturn of major tournament ban

Cricket South Africa is "optimistic" of having the government ban on bidding for hosting major global tournaments overturned when the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) presents its transformation report on Tuesday morning, although they do not foresee having any global cricket events in the country until at least 2023.

The EPG is an independent committee, appointed by ministers, who compile an annual assessment of various sporting codes and their commitment to change. Last year, they found four sporting federations, including cricket, had not met the transformation criteria. Then-sports minister, Fikile Mbalula, meted out the same punishment to all four federations, even though it had little material impact on any of them. In cricket's case, the ICC had already distributed events for the next six years.

Nonetheless, CSA set new transformation targets which required the team to field a minimum of six players of colour, of which at least two must be black African. At the end of the 2016-17 summer, CSA exceeded their targets.

"We are optimistic of achieving good outcomes but we would not want to pre-empt anything at this stage. Regardless, we are committed to transformation and we will continue to engage with the ministry and other stakeholders to ensure we achieve our transformation goals," CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat told ESPNcricinfo.

Apart from the on-field numbers, CSA also worked with the EPG and government administrators to create a more up-to-date database of cricket statistics at lower levels, particularly schools and clubs where much of the existing information was obsolete. "We have engaged constructively with the EPG secretariat and the Department to correct data errors and to develop a tailored scorecard for cricket," Lorgat said.

With accurate statistics now in place, cricket is unlikely to have a similar problem in the future provided the transformation numbers continue to meet requirements. There is no word on whether the targets will be increased, with new sports minister, Thembelani Nxesi, who was appointed in early April, yet to weigh in on the issue.