Jacques Faul takes job at Titans

Jacques Faul, Cricket South Africa's current acting chief executive, is officially out of the running for the permanent job. Faul has been unveiled as the new CEO of the Titans franchise and will take over the position from March 1.

The organisation, based in Centurion, is an amalgamation of the Northerns and Easterns unions and is one of the more successful franchises in the country. They lost their boss Elise Lombard last August when she unexpectedly died of a heart attack. Since then, Aniel Soma has been working in an acting capacity.

Faul, who was previously CEO of the North-West Cricket Union, has been in charge of CSA since Gerald Majola was suspended in March and was widely credited for changing the image of the organisation in the aftermath of the much publicised bonus scandal. Faul was at the helm when corporate sponsorship returned to cricket after many of its commercial partners abandoned it for fear of being associated with an organisation under a cloud.

Even though many of those negotiations, such as the one with ODI sponsors Momentum, started during the Majola-era, they were rubber-stumped only after the companies were convinced that CSA was cleaning up its corporate governance act. Following three investigations, including one convened by the country's sports minister, CSA was instructed to discipline Majola for his role in the paying of R4.7 million (at the time the equivalent of US$671,428) and change their structure of the board.

While Majola was discipline and fired in November, the restructuring of the board has faced lengthy delays. Conflicting orders from the country's sporting governing body, with the South African Sports and Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) opposed to an independent chairperson, meant CSA spent much time deciding how they would reach a compromise with SASCOC while still sticking to the requirements of the Nicholson committee.

The time lag in appointing the new board has also resulted in new CEO's appointment being deferred as well. Faul was initially believed to be interested in the job but when the Titans position became available he also applied there and distanced himself from the CSA position when further infighting around the acting president Willie Basson surfaced.

CSA will appoint the new board at its AGM this Saturday and they will then have a month to find a replacement for Faul. Haroon Lorgat, the former ICC chief executive, also expressed interest in the job, conditional to CSA restructuring its board.