Crucial new year beckons for floundering Boland Cricket to clean house
Three officials investigated by CSA anti-corruption officer for role in T10 tournament
As the new year beckons, Boland Cricket (BC) faces a crucial year in its history, with three BC officials being hauled before a Cricket South Africa (CSA) disciplinary tribunal in February.
The three officials — CEO James Fortuin, tournament director Riaan Nieuwoudt and head of umpires André Sheldon — have been investigated by Louis Cole, CSA’s anti-corruption officer, for their role in a domestic T10 tournament in Paarl last September.
The tournament, which was streamed live on YouTube, appears to have been a vehicle for online betting in India, where betting is illegal. Several high-profile Boland players who played in the T10, including Glenton Stuurman, were approached online by bookies or their representatives.
Cole’s investigation has provided reasonable grounds for the tribunal, although Fortuin has maintained his innocence throughout.
“New information will come to light and this will be shared with the media at the earliest available opportunity,” he said.
Despite on-field success – Boland were losing finalists in this year’s CSA T20 Challenge, where they lost to the Warriors in a Super Over – there has been a slow-burning narrative of controversy at the union. This pre-dates the 2024 T10 that came under Cole’s watchful eye.
Fortuin has not, for example, always had cordial working relationships with BC presidents. In March 2022 his long-time then-president, Angelo Carolissen, resigned with immediate effect, not seeing out the last six months of his term. In an emotional resignation letter, he accused Fortuin of “disrespect, arrogance and rudeness”.
Johan Clarke, a convicted felon, had a brief term as acting president after Carolissen, representing BC at CSA’s 2024 Annual General Meeting. He later reappeared in BC’s 2025 presidential elections as a candidate, losing the race to Cecil Fielies.
As a prison warden in Upper Hutt, outside of Wellington in New Zealand, Clarke supplied prisoners with Crystal Meth, dagga, cough lozenges, Kentucky Fried Chicken and dental floss through 2008 and 2009. In return he received a laptop, a GPS, three bottles of wine and the promise of sexual favours from “a woman on the outside”.
He was found guilty by a Justice Kos in 2011, who accused him of providing drug dealers with merchandise so they could continue dealing inside. He undertook eight months of a 27-month sentence before being released from what he described to
Other than the disciplinary tribunal against the three BC officials, there are independent indications all is not well at the union. In October, for example, CSA published their “Scorecard” of all CSA-affiliated provinces in its 2024-25 integrated report.
This scorecard, seen by TimesLIVE, rates the provinces’ performances across a variety of categories, including finance, governance and cricket services. While BC’s performance in the finance and governance categories was acceptable, they rated 15th out of 16 provinces in their discharge of cricket services, the last position being occupied by Northern Cape Cricket (NCC).
New information will come to light and this will be shared with the media at the earliest available opportunity.
— Cricket SA anti-corruption officer Louis Cole
NCC, lest we forget, is the problem child of domestic cricket. CSA “stepped in” at NCC in February, dissolving the NCC board, and appointing Jesse Chellan as a temporary administrator.
After being temporarily suspended in May, two senior NCC officials, former chief executive, Thapelo January, and former Northern Cape Heat team manager, Mbulelo Bosman, were “summarily dismissed” after disciplinary hearings according to CSA’s press release two weeks ago.
According to CSA their dismissal relates to matters of “financial misconduct, unethical conduct and integrity breaches, falsification of documents and records and possible corruption and other criminal contraventions”.
Back at BC, their 15th position in the cricket services category suggests a province not discharging even the most basic of cricket functions. According to CSA’s categories these services include mini cricket, club cricket, match officials, coach education and youth cricket, among others.
Fielies, the new BC president, appears to have grasped this. He campaigned prior to his election on the need for more homegrown players and better structures, returning the province to Boland cricketers.
A casual look at Boland’s white ball roster shows a high percentage of players from other provinces, a fact acknowledged by Fortuin, who does the BC recruiting. Frontline batter and occasional wicket-keeper, Grant Roelofsen, is originally a Gauteng boy, as is Keith Dudgeon; Roelofson came via the Dolphins, while Dudgeon arrived in Paarl via KwaZulu-Natal Inland.
Johannesburg-born off-spinner Imran Manack made his first-class debut for Easterns against Border in East London in 2013, while Gavin Kaplan was a former Rondebosch Boys’ High boy who struggled to get a contract at Western Province. Ayabulela Gqamane is originally a Warrior, via the Titans, while Stuurman comes originally from South Western Districts.
It’s a Boland team made up mainly from those outside the Boland.