Crisis-riddled Cricket SA has been hit by another setback, with the immediate resignation of independent board member Iqbal Khan on Wednesday evening.

Khan, who has served on the CSA board as an independent member since 2012, is the second independent board member to resign this week after Professor Shirley Zinn quit the embattled organisation on Monday.

CSA president Chris Nenzani confirmed to TimesLIVE that he had received Khan’s resignation and that he would inform the board.

“That’s true and I still have to send it to the board. I have received it this evening,” Nenzani said on Wednesday.

In the letter to Nenzani, Khan said he could no longer be party to an organisation that was ruining the game, and could no longer be held accountable for the misconduct of the CEO, Thabang Moroe, whom he has blamed for the majority of the issues that have beset the organisation.

Khan listed a number of reasons for his exit, with the experienced director saying the revoking of media accreditation of five journalists was “certainly unconstitutional and illegal”.

The other issues of concern for Khan were:

• Moroe's blaming communications head Thami Mthembu for miscommunication or non-effective communication with the media when it was Moroe who was ultimately responsible for such communication;
• CSA not paying the SA Cricketer’s Association (Saca) a contractual amount in terms of a key stakeholder contract and the blame therefore was placed with the three suspended officials (COO Naasei Appiah, sales and sponsorship head Clive Eksteen and acting director of cricket Corrie van Zyl) despite the contract being signed by Moroe;
• Several resignations in the CSA office due to what they say is a legally toxic environment;
• Widespread credit card abuse in the office;
• Hastily organising a press conference this week then cancelling it at the last minute;
• Very selective communication with Saca and a failure to engage them in terms of the CSA collective agreement with Saca;
• The mishandling of the director of cricket issue, and
• Bringing CSA into disrepute.

Another straw that broke the camel's back for Khan was the rescheduling of an urgent board meeting from Tuesday to Saturday. 

The tailspin started with the revoking of the accreditation of five journalists on Sunday, leading to the organisation coming apart at the seams this week.

“In my humble view, the deep crisis that cricket finds itself in cannot wait for a board meeting to be held on Saturday. I was thus most surprised and deeply disappointed that a board meeting scheduled for last night [Tuesday] failed to materialise. Surely for a board meeting to be convened, we do not physically have to be in the same place. We have on numerous occasions convened board meetings by teleconference,” Khan said.

“The criticism in the media and by the public who love and support cricket has reached such a crescendo that I can no longer be deaf to the cries of immediate changes at CSA board level. Before Professor Shirley Zinn resigned, I still maintained I would give things a chance and wait until Saturday for us to address the crisis we find ourselves in.

“I seriously doubt however that you and/or the board is capable of doing so and, in the circumstances, I have reached the only conclusion, and that is I must resign my position on the board, as well as my position as chairperson of the CSA finance committee,” Khan wrote.

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