Cricket South Africa acting CEO Thabang Moroe has denied hosting a press briefing to which only black journalists were invited.

Moroe told SACricketmag.com he had simply had an impromptu conversation with journalists, before attending a meeting with senior Gauteng Cricket Board officials regarding the bad publicity surrounding the Wanderers pitch for the third Test against India.

‘The meeting was scheduled to be held at the media centre. When I arrived, I was engaged by a number of journalists who wanted to ask several questions relevant to the current activities of Cricket South Africa. They felt that the media houses they represented had been excluded from CSA media activities.

‘Although this was an informal event, in the interest of the CSA policy of transparency in its dealing with all its stakeholders, including the media, I took questions from the journalists.

‘I also made it clear that all future requests for interviews should be conducted through the CSA communications department.

‘At no stage was this a formal CSA media briefing,’ he stressed.

Moroe also rubbished the claim that he was trying to push Proteas team doctor and manager Mohammed Moosajee out the door. He said while the CSA board had decided to split the role of team manager and doctor, Moosajee’s contract had been extended until the 2019 World Cup.

‘In November 2017 the board extended Dr Moosajee’s contract until April 2018 and indicated that the role of team manager and doctor would be split going forward.

‘This was then discussed again at our last board meeting earlier this month and it was decided to extend Dr Moosajee’s contract until the 2019 World Cup.’

Moroe also denied that only two umpires were being allocated for first-class matches to save money, and that South Africa had over the previous seven seasons been the only country to have had a reserve umpire for these games.

‘For this season, we have followed the model used in India, Australia and England, where there are also only two on-field umpires and the match referee. We will also have a shadow umpiring system where identified umpires will be at matches to learn from the on-field umpires.’

Regarding the claim that the CSA board was unhappy with his conduct, Moroe said: ‘The board did not raise any such issue with me at our most recent board meeting earlier this month.’

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