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The Girl Guides philosophy
Cricket South Africa’s chief executive officer, Gerald Majola has sport ingrained in his heart and soul. He was born with a cricket bat in one hand, a rugby ball in the other hand, and a soccer ball at his feet.
Majola’s late father, Eric, was a legend in his own lifetime in the 1950s and 1960s as a black Springbok in both rugby and cricket.
His late brother, Khaya, was an outstanding cricket all-rounder who pioneered the development programme of the United Cricket Board of South Africa when it was founded in 1991.
As youngsters, they fiercely contested a few timeless tests in the dusty street outside their home.
Majola played cricket and rugby at the highest levels available to him in the apartheid era, and also became a fully fledged soccer coach.
His mother, Jumartha, possessed endearing qualities that had a great influence on Majola’s life. She devoted her life to community service and youth development programmes. She was renowned as the Mother Teresa of New Brighton and won countless awards for her community work.
Tidy mind, tidy desk and tidy angels
“Our mother taught us to be tidy in all that we did. Otherwise, she said, the ‘tidy angels’ would be most annoyed. This has stayed with me throughout my life and has been a great help to me as an administrator. I try to keep a tidy mind and a tidy desk so that I can make uncluttered decisions,” he says.
Majola says of his youth: “I was involved in sport since I can remember. I was nicknamed ‘Jailer’ after a great placekicker of German origin who played with my father at Spring Rose Rugby Club.
“As a toddler, I kicked my feeding bottle over the gate. They gave me the nickname of Jailer, but took away the feeding bottles from then on. Ironically, my top rugby career ended with my missing a sitter in front of the poles to rob Kwaru of the SA Cup in the final of 1987.”
His youth days were filled with sport and involvement with the community.
Borrowing a creed from Martin Luther King
“Although we then lived in a difficult era under apartheid, we were kept going by leaders such as Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.
“As pupils at Kwazakhele High School, our credo came out of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech. It was memories of King’s words which brought tears to my eyes when Nelson Mandela – and more recently Barack Obama – were made presidents of their nations,” says Majola.
“We had confidence in ourselves and in our abilities to overcome the racial barriers that were put in our paths and we used sport to keep us going forward.”
A new life as cricket administrator beckons
After his playing days were over, Majola devoted his sporting life to administration in the three sporting codes in which he had excelled.
“But in the end, it was cricket that I loved the most. Cricket is a game that bases itself on fair play, on respect for your opponents and on using individual skills for the overall good of the team. These are qualities that I greatly admire and which I believe should be applicable to both cricket and to life in general.”
Majola was elected to the General Council of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) in 1998, and became a member of the National Selection Panel a year later.
Off the field, he built a career in industry (chemical analyst) and commerce (director of an Eastern Cape commercial property development company and director of a major national civil engineering company).
With this sporting and business background, Majola was appointed as CEO of the United Cricket Board in 2001.
He moved to Johannesburg with his family: his wife, Honey, son, Allister (named after his boyhood friend and former Springbok assistant coach Allister Coetzee) and daughters, Khanyisile and Sibusisiwe.
Both Khanyisile and Sibusisiwe are learners at St Stithians College in Sandton, and Allister is training in sports event management.
As CEO, he has applied many business and sports principles to the administration of the game. These include strategic development plans, high performance programmes for players, strict financial controls and good corporate governance measures.
He has also attended leadership courses at the Wits Business School to hone his administrative- and people skills.
Majola says: “Cricket South Africa, as it is now known, has this as its vision: to make cricket a truly national sport of winners. This has two elements to it: To be a truly national sport, cricket has to be supported by the majority of South Africans and be available to all who want to play it; and to be a sport of winners, cricket has to pursue excellence at all levels.”
Majola states that the Proteas are the focus of South African cricket. “A pipeline has been built from grassroots to the Proteas, with a strong emphasis on capacity building and the pursuit of excellence.
“This is not an easy or simple task against the background of South Africa’s historically imbalanced past,” he says.
“And so it was with immense satisfaction all round when the Proteas were ranked the best team in the world in both tests and one-day internationals recently with a squad representing all our communities.
“This is not, however, the pinnacle. We have now gone beyond the struggle to reach the top.
“Now the struggle is about keeping us there.”
The best venues in the world
Majola points to CSA’s growing reputation as perhaps the best venue for world cricket events as “another cause of much satisfaction”.
“We in recent times have successfully staged two International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cups, for men and women; the inaugural ICC Twenty20 Championship, the 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL), and the ICC Champions Trophy.
“These events have come at a strategic time in the development of our nation as an economic and tourist destination ,and we are proud of this.”
The staging at the last minute of the 2009 IPL was a global success, but brought with it some new challenges.
“CSA found during this tournament that we have to realign the contracts between us and the affiliates who run the stadiums, and we have begun this process.
“This was one of the causes of the rift between CSA and the Gauteng Cricket Board and is one of the issues being remedied in terms of the restructuring that is now taking place at Gauteng Cricket Board as well as formalising host agreements with the stadiums,” says Majola.
South African sport has been dogged by controversies down the years, and cricket has been no different.
“I cannot speak for other sports, but as far as my involvement as a national CEO is concerned, I try and stick to my principles and follow the mandate given to me from CSA’s Board to implement its vision for South African cricket.
Learning from Alfred Adler
“I strive for consistency so that people know what to expect from me and I from them,” says Majola.
“I have taken my cue from Alfred Adler, the famous Viennese psychologist, who wrote a book entitled What Life Should Mean To You.
“In that book, he says: ‘It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men, who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from such individuals that all human failures spring’.
“The lesson for me from this quote is that you have to be genuinely interested in other people to be a successful leader,” he says.
Majola’s leadership has taken South African cricket into the modern era of world sport, where it has become an integral part of the globalisation of the game.
He has overseen the introduction of franchise cricket, which has reduced professional domestic competitions to six instead of 11 teams. This has had a profound effect on the game here.
The strength-versus-strength format has seen standards rising to the point where this Proteas’ feeder system is producing a large pool of successful young cricketers who are the envy of the cricketing world.
“These improved standards in domestic professional cricket have had a meaningful impact on the ability of the Proteas, to the extent that they finished last season as the world’s best team in tests and one-day internationals,” he says.
The franchise system also cut back drastically on the bloated 11-team competitions that became unpopular with the public and which gobbled up funds that are now used for amateur development and the preparation of the Proteas.
Majola has also been responsible for implementing and monitoring CSA’s transformation policy.
“The transformation process is having some fascinating results, including the record number of Afrikaners who have represented the Proteas over the past several years.
“This process also includes women’s cricket, and at last they are getting a place under South African cricket’s sun,” he says.
The advent of Twenty20 and growing popularity of the sport
Majola’s term of office has also seen the rise of limited overs cricket, especially the Twenty20 version, or Standard Bank Pro20 as it is called here in South Africa.
“This shortened version of the game is the result of the changing needs of the sporting public. They want to see short, intense events with instant results which are a mirror of the way people live their lives in the global village these days.
“We embrace Twenty20 cricket because we believe it brings in new audiences, especially young families. The 2009 IPL, for instance, drew full houses and research showed that 40% of the spectators were first-time visitors to a cricket match,” says Majola.
“These new spectators, we believe, will eventually be drawn into watching all forms of the game because test cricket itself is becoming more intense and results-driven as a result of players taking part in these new competitions.”
Introducing a one-day revolution
“The 50-over international game will also have to change,” he says.
“Jointly with MTN, we have taken this initiative by introducing 40-over cricket with several innovations domestically, which will overcome the dull middle periods which have crept into the 50-over version.
“Domestic cricket itself is changing dramatically through tournaments like the IPL and Champions League, which give franchise teams and players the chance to compete on the international stage,” adds Majola.
“There is also a revolution as far as central playing contracts are concerned, and we have now seen the rise of the international freelance player who will ply his trade to the
highest bidder.
“The key to keeping the right balance is to have a healthy relationship between the players and the national federation. Fortunately, CSA has a memorandum of understanding with the South African Cricketers’ Association which represents our professional cricketers.
“This relationship gives players a stake in the game and together we can plan and grow in a dynamic world in the interests of the game, the players and the nation,” he adds.
Big, thriving business
CSA itself has indeed become very big business during Majola’s term of office. According to CSA’s latest Annual Report, the total income (excluding investment income) increased from R128 million to R284m during the period 2000/01 and 2008/09.
The main income contributors were national and international sponsorships, which increased from R47m to R125m, while television income increased from R52m to R90m over the same period.
Majola has put good corporate governance structures in place to oversee all the activities of the CSA.
“This is vital so that all stakeholders can have confidence in the CSA system and invest in it across the board,” he says.
Remembering the Girl Guides
How does Majola deal with the complicated, sophisticated and often cut-throat issues that face administrators of the game in South Africa and internationally?
“I keep going back to my roots, to the lessons my parents taught me. My mother has been a life-long devotee and servant of the Girl Guide movements.
“She taught me this Scouts’ pledge at the age of nine: ‘On my honour, I promise to do my best, to do my duty to God and my country, to help others at all times, and to obey the law’,” he says.
“My philosophy in life is based on this simple pledge.”
Fanie Heyns
***.adlerianpsychologyassociates****
Best regaards,
Bob Powers