What a mess. Every which way you look at the stillborn tournament that used to be called‚ and may or may not be called again‚ the Global T20 League (GT20L)‚ you can’t get away from those three little words.

Here are six more words to add to the list: What the hell were they thinking?

They?

* Haroon Lorgat‚ Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) former chief executive — a job that he left he officially parted ways with the Association on September 28 — who seemed to think he could do as he liked‚ without telling the board‚ to set up the T20GL.

* The board‚ who seemingly did not ask Lorgat the right questions‚ or didn’t get the right answers to their questions‚ until they realised they were knee-deep in the crap.

* The T20GL franchise owners‚ who signed up for a bite of this pie in the sky with no clue whether broadcasters or sponsors were anywhere near being secured.

* SuperSport‚ who apparently refused to accept that a pertinent clause in their contract with CSA made plain that they did not own the rights to matches that fell outside of their existing deal to broadcast domestic and international games played in South Africa.

* The players and their agents‚ who have grown far too used to taking easy money from every and any T20 tournament without asking whether team owners are in it for the good of the game or their own bank balances‚ or some other reason.

Thabang Moroe‚ CSA’s vice-president and‚ as of September 28‚ their acting chief executive‚ spent much of his press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday trying to convey how much the board were peeved with what Lorgat had allegedly gotten up to while they weren’t looking.

Fair enough. They would seem to have reason to be aggrieved. But why weren’t they looking‚ especially considering they fired their previous chief executive‚ Gerald Majola‚ for hiding millions from their governance committees?

And why did Lorgat push the corners of the T20GL envelope so hard knowing he was already on thin ice with the board after insufficient transformation was discovered within CSA’s professional arm‚ which he headed?

Or would all have been forgiven had he been able to deliver what he had promised?

Brimstone Investments‚ who pulled out of owning a chunk of the Stellenbosch franchise in August‚ might want to call themselves clever for running away from this circus. But their shareholders should want to know which company clown made the decision to get involved in the first place.

It’s high time‚ too‚ that questions were asked about SuperSport’s relationship with South African sport. For instance‚ can it be right that a broadcaster sits on provincial and franchise boards? Their agendas won’t always chime with administrators’‚ but whoever holds the purse strings will get their way.

Similarly‚ we need to know from players what makes them think they can get away with claiming to be unwitting innocents in all this. As citizens of countries governed by laws‚ they have a responsibility to keep their noses clean. Instead‚ they look willfully out of touch with reality beyond the boundary. All that seems to matter to them is that they get paid — even if‚ as in the case of the T20GL‚ they don’t do the work.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again‚ and we won’t be alone:

What a bloody mess.