South Africa’s Olympic body has taken control of cricket in the country, a move that could fall foul of the ICC’s rules on government interference and lead to the national team being kicked out of the game at international level.

Letters from the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) to CSA – which have been seen by Cricbuzz – demand that “the CSA board and those senior executives who serve ex-officio on the board (the company secretary, the acting CEO, the CFO and the COO) are directed to step aside from the administration of CSA on full pay” pending the outcome of a month-long investigation by a task team into what SASCOC termed “many instances of maladministration and malpractice that have occurred since at least December 2019”.

“This has manifestly caused great concern and consternation amongst your own members, former and current members of the national team of the Proteas, stakeholders, sponsors, and members of the cricket-loving public,” the letter said. “There can be no doubt that this has caused cricket to lose the trust and confidence of members of the public, stakeholders, sponsors and the players represented by SACA [the South African Cricketers’ Association]. All this has brought cricket into disrepute.”

SASCOC took a dim view of CSA’s dallying about a forensic report into the organisation’s state of affairs: “SASCOC has attempted to address these issues in two meetings with the CSA board: one was exploratory, and the other failed to take place mainly because of the fact that CSA failed to make the… forensic report available to the SASCOC board despite promises and undertakings by CSA to do so. CSA is in receipt of our letter which records that the board’s decision to make the said report available only on a limited basis to the president and board members of SASCOC, is wholly unreasonable and irrational given the apparent nature and scope of the report.”

SASCOC governs the relationship between the state and sport federations, and as such has the authority to put CSA under administration. Their decision, taken at a meeting on Tuesday, was passed by a unanimous vote.

Neither CSA nor the ICC immediately responded to requests for comment.