Cricket stronger after turbulent past: Faul
Cricket SA's acting CEO Jacques Faul says the organisation is stronger following its recent turbulent past.
Faul said on Tuesday that the bonus and administration scandal, which had resulted in the suspension of Gerald Majola, had rocked the cricket body but would benefit them in the long run.
"In my view, we've come out stronger after our challenges," Faul said in a statement released by www.sportindustry.co.za.
"We believe we will be a better organisation for having gone through all of this."
Faul said the Proteas would now turn their attention to winning silverware after the team secured the No 1 spot in the world rankings with their series victory over England on Monday.
South Africa completed a 2-0 series win to leapfrog England to the top of the test rankings.
He said CSA would like to learn from the successes of other sporting codes such as rugby, with their winning the World Cup at home in 1995 and again in 2007, in France.
The Proteas have never progressed past the semifinals of the Cricket World Cup, a statistic Faul would like to see change.
"Of course, people can perhaps say we consistently don't reach major finals, and consistently peak between two World Cups," he said.
"So as much as we consistently perform well, we have to explore why we don't do it in ICC events.
"It will be great to sit down with rugby, where they've won the Rugby World Cup twice, and look at what they do differently."
Faul and CSA will join the SA Rugby Union (Saru), led by CEO Jurie Roux, and the South African Football Association (Safa), headed up by CEO Robin Petersen, in leading a debate at the inaugural Sport Industry Summit in October.
Faul, Roux and Petersen be on stage together in an unprecedented panel, with the goal of improving South African sport through collaboration between its leading codes.
"I think it's important for all codes to engage with each other, and especially what we would consider the major three codes - rugby, cricket and soccer," Faul said.
"We've got similar challenges and we've also got the opportunity to benchmark ourselves and learn from the other codes."
They would also engage in discussions with soccer authorities and look to take up an even more prominent role in the South African national psyche.
"The biggest thing we can learn from soccer is to make cricket a true national game and that's our vision – to make it a true national game," he said.
