Cricket South Africa Ceo Praises ECB Structure
Cricket SA Acting CEO Jacques Faul says the country’s national side, the Proteas, will focus on winning silverware as they celebrate securing the number one spot in the world rankings with their series victory over England. Faul also paid tribute to the ECB in an exclusive interview with the Sport Industry Group’s dedicated South African industry news site, sportindustry.co.za.
South Africa completed a 2-0 series win on Monday to leapfrog England at the top of the Test rankings. Faul insisted competition at the top of the rankings was vital to the health of cricket, and was keen to praise the structure of English cricket as he leads his organisation into a new era after a series of well-documented problems in its administration.
‘England is a good example of a very well-run structure at the ECB, and that has resulted in a very competitive team – they’ve got very good junior systems, very good administration, and it’s been wonderful seeing the two teams meet,’ said Faul. ‘We’d like to think we will always be in a position to compete with them.
‘We’re humble – the first day of the Test didn’t go our way, after all – but we’ve got a real fighting spirit. I think it’s important for cricket that as many teams as possible are competitive. If there’s a gap between the top team and the others that’s not healthy for cricket.’
After defeating England by 51 runs, and claiming the number one spot in the World Test rankings, Faul revealed his next target is to make cricket ‘a truly national sport’ in South Africa.
Later this year, South Africa will host the Champions League Twenty20, offering a valuable opportunity to showcase the country to a global audience. Faul commented: ‘It’s also important to show off our capacity to host multinational competitions. We pride ourselves that we’re very good at project management and we have the ability to host this and I think a lot of good will come out of it. Look at the soccer World Cup – it was a fantastic opportunity to showcase South Africa: our people; our places; our abilities. And I think you experience a national boost in confidence competing with the rest of the world. I think it was a huge success.’
The administration of South African cricket has had well-documented problems in previous years, but Faul believes that his organisation is better for them. ‘In my view we’ve come out stronger after our challenges,’ he said. ‘We believe we will be a better organisation for having gone through all of this.’
To read Jacques Faul’s exclusive interview in full, click here.
