NEIL MANTHORP
Wisden Cricket Monthly’s South Africa correspondent @NeilManthorp
Let’s rewind to 2009. South Africa hosted the IPL at short notice and did so with great success. The BCCI was very grateful and lobbed over R4million to CSA as a thank you. Chief executive Gerald Majola, who was actually extremely good at his job, divvied it up amongst his staff - keeping the largest slice for himself.
That was the way things worked, not just in cricket but the country. In fact, sharing out the booty was unusual. In retrospect, it was positively philanthropic. The cash was outside ‘normal business’ - like a restaurant tip. So it was pocketed. The problem was that CSA’s Finance Committee was chaired by one of the few independent directors, prominent banker Paul Harris. Red flag.