UCB invites 35 'brains' to indaba

The United Cricket Board is inviting a group of 35 "cricket brains" in South Africa to a brainstorming session to be held in Johannesburg on 23 April 2002. The purpose of the day-long meeting is to look back at the 2001/2 season in a constructive manner with a view to devising a cricketing strategy looking ahead to the 2003 Cricket World Cup and beyond.

Invitees include some current players, team management, former players, administrators (including 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup Executive Director Dr Ali Bacher), some current Executive Committee members, the Transformation Monitoring Committee chairman Andre Odendaal and some current selectors.

Invitees who are not available to attend the session have been asked to make a written submission to ensure their ideas can be taken into account. South African captain Shaun Pollock, who leaves for England on April 19 to take up a contract with Warwickshire, has said he will make a written submission to UCB CEO Gerald Majola before his departure.

"We feel that there are many issues that need to be looked at in a constructive fashion and we want to ensure that we make use of all the cricketing expertise we possibly can. The meeting will be a proactive means for the UCB to look frankly at the international season just past and devise a strategy that we can go forward with," said Mr Majola today. "The group will look at all cricketing issues around the national team in particular. The immediate goal is a cricketing strategy for the 2003 World Cup, but this will also be the foundation of our strategy for the game, especially around the national team, in the longer term."

"We realize there is a need to act quickly and to get this process moving forward to ensure that our most precious asset - our national team - is competitive, fit and strong," added Mr Majola.

The General Council of the UCBSA is to have a Special General Meeting on 27 April to adopt the new Constitution of the UCBSA in which the game's administration is split into professional and amateur arms. The constitution has been drawn up as a result of the recent restructuring exercise undertaken by PriceWaterhouse Coopers-Gobodo.

The 11 Affiliates of the UCBSA have been asked to nominate Directors for the Board of the new professional arm of cricket. These new Directors will be appointed at a special meeting immediately after the new Constitution is adopted on 27 April and the first task of this new Board at their first meeting on 27 April will be to deal with the recommendations coming out of the brainstorming session of 23 April.

The Annual General Meeting of the UCBSA has been scheduled for 3 August 2003.

Below is the list of invitees to the brainstorming session on April 23. "As we have not been able to contact some of them yet, we ask them to contact Lesley O'Donoghue at the UCBSA on (011) 880-2810 to let us know if they are available," said Mr Majola.

Hylton Ackerman

Ali Bacher

Vincent Barnes

John Blair

Fanie de Villiers

Allan Donald

Steve Elworthy

Anton Ferreira

Graham Ford

Morris Garda

Andrew Gray

Omar Henry

Andrew Hudson

Aslam Khota

Tim Khumalo

Gary Kirsten

Peter Kirsten

Rob Kurz

Haroon Lorgat

Rushdi Magiet

Ray Mali

Craig Matthews

Makhaya Ntini

Andre Odendaal

Hugh Page

Graeme Pollock

Shaun Pollock

Ashwell Prince

Goolam Rajah

Jonty Rhodes

Charlie Robinson

Eric Simons

Craig Smith

Pat Symcox

Corrie van Zyl

Kepler Wessels