Jono Leaf-Wright presides over a cricket powerhouse. He may also be the finest sporting CEO in South Africa, a man who knows how to win and has his heart in the right place.
How many sporting CEO’s do you know who make it a point to mingle among the crowds and chat to spectators on match day? How many do you know who take the name plate off the door on day one, refusing to attach a designation to their position?
How many stadiums do you know that have a butcher, a car wash and a Pilates studio on the premises?
Lions cricket is changing, turning the traditional model on its head and reimagining the modern sporting experience.
It’s taken an unlikely champion to do so in the shape of Jono Leaf-Wright, an average schoolboy cricketer (his own words) who became a coach and scout after volunteering as a dogsbody. Now he sits atop a thriving team and multi-purpose venue famously known as ‘The Bullring’.
Over five years ago he fought off a slew of competition to land the Lions top job at a time when the union was haemorrhaging money, and players. Things were a mess.
The general response to his appointment ranged from shock to outright disapproval. He was viewed as a lightweight who would be quickly exposed. The game’s politics would eat him alive, went the refrain.
Five-and-a-half years on and there’s an argument to be made that Leaf-Wright is the finest sport administrator in the country. Pound for pound, the Lions are statistically the most successful cricket team in the world.
Nine trophies have been won in five years, transformation targets have been smashed, a slew of Lions have made their mark internationally, the union is back in the black, sponsors have come stampeding through the gates and Wanderers has been established as a multi-purpose facility that accommodates a range of events and business tenants.
Reality Bites
The 43-year-old looks back with a sense of wonder. “I started here at the back end of 2019, and five months later, Covid hit. When I walked in, I had this vision to redesign the stadium, to create this multi-purpose destination, to create a stadium that not only cricket’s played in. All of this was planned and we started the ball rolling.
“But I also walked into Lions cricket losing anywhere between R10-million and R14-million a year. We were bleeding and I had to come with a turnaround strategy to rescue things. We declared shocking results at the end of that first six-month period I had inherited. It was a couple of months after Covid had hit; no fans, no spectators.
“And this is Africa’s only tier-one stadium which costs a lot to keep the gates open. It costs a lot to keep this place alive. There’s a lot of people who work here whose lives depend on this place succeeding and doing well, a lot of communities where club cricket is played and hubs and township programmes are given life. A lot of communities depend on the Lions brand to sustain them. A lot of families depend on the breadwinner that may sit within this Lions ecosystem. It was that pressure that I walked into off the back of Covid. I had to make some really tough decisions and thank goodness these were backed by my board and backed by my team at the time. We went through Section 189 where we had to retrench a few people; thankfully not a lot in the end.”
Leaf-Wright consciously laboured to redesign the entire look and feel of Lions cricket, choosing a clever slogan derived from the acronym for Central Gauteng Lions.
“Choices, Governance and Longevity” became their guiding principles.
“We needed to make sure that every choice we made, every decision we made, was based on those principles.”
Heady Days
Two years ago, the Lions declared their best financial results in 10 years. Last year, the results were even better.
Consequently, the Lions have revived the brand to the extent that they now have 45 partners, among them blue-chip international corporates like DP World.
“These partners have really bought into our vision of what we stand for as a brand, and backed us and our values. I often say to people that sometimes it’s easier to attract a sponsor. The real test is whether you renew that partner.”
Success has been central to these sponsors coming to the party.
Leaf-Wright tells the story of Titans CEO Jacques Faul putting a project together analysing the best teams in global cricket as part of a book on crisis management he was working on.
Data was drawn from teams from South Africa, England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, Pakistan, India and elsewhere. The Lions and Titans trumped them all for success in the past 10 years, the Lions since having pulled ahead on the back of nine trophies, including three in the past year alone.
It’s a source of great pride as the trophy cabinet on Corlett Drive is a tangible measure of change and success. Winning also proves that excellence can be fast-tracked with the right people and motivation.
Leaf-Wright is a tough man to pin down. Twelve to 15-hour days are common, more so that he is in the middle of the cut and thrust of the Betway T20. The Joburg Super Kings play out of Wanderers and the Lions boss has a loose arrangement with the team as a quasi-media manager and unofficial member of team management. Knowing the lie of the land, he’s often used as a sounding board.
He’s found it interesting to examine their model whereby the coach, the captain and the cricket people take care of cricket and the CEO and his staff take care of everything non-cricket.
It’s essentially the same model the Lions use themselves. For instance, Leaf-Wright doesn’t interfere in team selection.
“I’ve never changed the team in five-and-a-half years. I don’t fiddle,” he says. “They present a team to me. I look and make sure that from a transformational perspective it’s aligned with minimum requirements from CSA. I may ask questions around the team, perhaps ask check we have three spinners here. Those are the kind of cricket questions I’ll ask. I’ve not changed the team because you can only hold selectors responsible and accountable for the teams that they want and believe in.”
Paying his Dues
Not only have Leaf-Wright’s detractors come round to him being better than most, they recognise too that he’s paid his dues, albeit in an unorthodox manner.
“In any organisation you need to drive a culture of excellence,” he says. “I’d come from an environment of close on 20 years of being in coaching, of managing businesses, of managing hundreds of people. I’d been national talent scout for South Africa for 11 years. Players like Kagiso Rabada, I sat with him when he was 15 and drove him to Potchefstroom. I spent time with Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock, Tony De Zorzi, Wiaan Mulder, when many of today’s era were young and all part of my system. They were part of my talent programme as young 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds. We have deep respect for each other, and a great relationship. For me to come in here was quite easy, and I was very well received by the players in particular. Just as they wanted to win when they were under me at under-19 level, they wanted to do the same as seniors. I’m not just a business CEO who understands the business of cricket, I’m someone who understands cricket and understands how to create winning cultures and winning environments and winning teams.”
A corollary of this is that cricketers themselves now gravitate to the Lions, hoping to make the grade.
Leaf-Wright worked hard to ensure that the team environment and the team space was attractive to both retain and attract talent. The waiting list to sign for the Lions is a long one, not least because few current Lions opt to leave.
“Players want to stay and be part of this environment. Coaches too.”
Former Lions man Enoch Nkwe is Director of Cricket for CSA, his successor, Wandile Gwavu, is now the Proteas fielding coach, and the Lions now sit with Russell Domingo as head coach, Allan Donald as bowling coach and Hashim Amla in charge of batting.
“That,” says Leaf-Wright, “is an undoubted international coaching staff working with the next generation of Proteas within our Lions ecosystem.”
There are other important boxes that have been ticked.
Nourishing the Ecosystem
Before women’s cricket became professional, the Lions were the first province to give contracts to its women players, and the first union to appoint a physio, a strength and conditioning coach, and women’s team doctor.
“That was really my intention with my team and my board,” he says. “I said, ‘guys, what can we do to set ourselves apart and how can we lead in every aspect of cricket and every aspect of the business of cricket?’ That’s what our partners were really attracted to. They were attracted to the fact that we were not just focused on winning trophies, we were focused on impacting communities, developing talent, our blind cricket system, our deaf cricket system, our girls cricket programme, our boys cricket programme.”
Schools have thrived under his leadership. The Gauteng Cup was birthed in the middle of Covid as a means of keeping school cricket alive. The Jozi Cup soon followed to become the biggest winter competition in the country with 1800 participants.
Innovation was everywhere because Leaf-Wright was determined to nourish cricket’s ecosystem, connecting all the teams – “giving them all a seat at the table,” he says.
“How do we make sure that everybody feels a part of the family?” he asks. “That was one of the biggest things I drove. I stressed that we are all one family. I said ‘everything I do represents you. Everything you do represents me, and everything we all do represents each other’. This thinking helped reimagine the culture where family values helped inspire business decisions. The culture shifted, but it wasn’t easy.
“We went through some really tough workshops and really tough conversations with staff around how they were and how they felt and what we needed to do as a leadership team to ensure that they wanted to be here, wanted to be a part of this team, and thank goodness it’s all worked out.”
The Lions haven’t only won trophies for their on-field prowess. In successive years, the Sport Industry named them Sport Organisation of the Year.
Insiders had never heard of an affiliate doing so, never mind back-to-back.
“That doesn’t only speak to what we do on the field, it speaks to what we do off it. The lives and the communities that we impact are significant, and the quality of our governance. The way we go about our work is trusted by our partners too. You look at McDonald’s South Africa. They re-entered the professional sporting sponsorship space for the first time in this country in 26 years, and they chose Lions cricket. And then off the back of that, they got involved in a bit of football and they got involved in the Blitzboks. They have just re-signed, so to retain a partner like McDonald’s speaks to the trust we have and to what we’ve delivered as a union over a sustained period of time.”
If Leaf-Wright speaks with the confidence of a man who knows his business, it’s because he paid his dues from day one.
Walking the Walk
“I wasn’t a great cricketer,” he admits. “I played A team at school. I was at Westville Boys High in Durban for a long time and then moved up here. I matriculated at Bryanston High where I bowled a bit of offspin, was a bit of a hack at number six and seven. Strangely enough, when I finished school, I went back to Bryanston and asked for a coaching job. The head of cricket there said ‘no, we’re looking for a decent cricketer to come in here.”
Undaunted, he landed elsewhere and a couple of months later did his level one coaching, followed by two and three with CSA.
That same year, 2009, the Indian Premier League temporarily relocated to South Africa and Leaf-Wright got involved in the Royal Challengers and in 2010 found himself in India as assistant coach, creating a strong bond with the IPL, many of whom are now involved in SA20.
His journey accelerated quickly. In 2003 he interned at the World Cup under Ali Bacher.
He recalls a key moment late that year. Having bought a ticket for the Test against Sri Lanka, he cheekily knocked on the Proteas change room door.
The late team manager Goolam Rajah opened the door and said, “what do you want, boy?”
Leaf Wright answered: “Boss, I’m happy to clean shoes, make milkshakes, pack bags, do whatever you want, but I’m just here to learn. And he said, ‘come in, sonny’. And I was with the Proteas for 11 years.
“I drove the players’ wives, I was the change room attendant, I literally carried the bags.. Graeme Smith was the captain of the Proteas at the time. I used to run around him like a headless chicken, making sure the team was happy. Corrie van Zyl was one of the coaches. I used to serve him tea. And the strange thing is Allan Donald, ‘Hash’ and Russell were part of the Proteas in some way, shape or form in my time.”
He makes the point because as Lions CEO he now signs their cheques as Lions staffers.
It is something Russell often says in his public talks: you need to be kind to people at all times, because the circle of life shifts.
“I’m very blessed to be here,” says Leaf-Wright, who has an outstanding relationship with his board, which has just signed him on for another five years, to 2029.
Part of Leaf-Wright’s remit was to re-energise the stadium, and to attract new business tenants.
At the start of his tenure, there were around 70 people who used office space. Now, around 1200 work at the facility daily, among them butchers, dentists, podiatrists and Pilates instructors.
“There’s a lot happening,” says Leaf-Wright. “This is a living, breathing, working stadium. We also have a lot of non-cricket events. We’ve had a big upscaling in eventing and weddings and corporate functions. We had the Freestyle Kings from Australia at the back end of last year with freestyle motocross on the field. People said we were mad, but we did it. Two days later we played cricket on the very same field. Even with the other stuff, we’ll always be South Africa’s most iconic and premier cricket stadium due to size and capacity. But from a revenue generation point of view, we are also very open to hosting non-cricket stuff. It’s been really good for us.”
Rugby Riddles
Given the perennial conversation around the viability of Ellis Park, the discussion moved to the possibility of Wanderers hosting rugby.
“We’ve definitely looked into it,” he revealed. “But we’ll also look to host soccer, rugby having engaged with us previously. PSL teams – major teams – have come in and expressed a big interest in making this their home.”
The big challenge, however, is the pitch configuration. “Whereas in places like Australia and New Zealand, which sometimes go from football to rugby to cricket over a space of a couple of weeks, they’ve got those drop-in pitches that make it easier. We are looking at that. If you go out to the field now, we’re the first stadium to start growing a drop-in pitch on the side of the field. The plan in 15 months will be to dig out one of the pitches in the middle of the field and be the first drop-in pitch tested within South Africa. Ours is the first stadium to embark on that journey. CSA are driving it quite hard because of the amount of cricket that’s played now, particularly with the SA20. There’s significantly more wear and tear on the square. And we have to be innovative about how we protect that square to ensure that we play good cricket and have good pitches that can produce good runs and, and good wickets.”
If Leaf-Wright’s life seems dominated by cricket, it’s because his days are consumed by the game. It leaves little time for much else.
However, he tries to spend every spare moment he can with his wife Claire and their children, Julian (10) and Casey (six).
“There are many long days, but I try and make sure I don’t miss out on my kids’ key years. It’s tough because cricket’s a weekend thing. School cricket’s on a Saturday. Club cricket is Saturday and Sunday. Many of our matches, whether it’s men or women, blind cricket, deaf cricket, are on weekends.”
Cricket Challenges
Immersed as he is in the sport and closer than most, his views on the game’s evolution are both revealing and cautionary.
“Cricket,” he says, “is evolving at a rapid rate. Franchise cricket is taking over the world. You’re seeing these private leagues pop up everywhere. Our biggest domestic league in South Africa is really a private league, the SA20, which has re-energised cricket in our country.
“To retain talent, to have them play for the country, is a challenge. We must look at innovative ways of doing things. The ICC have got to have a real check on themselves that they don’t become just an eventing organisation, because that’s in essence what looks like has been happening over the past years. There’s an ICC competition every year, whether it’s a Champions Trophy this year, a T20 World Cup next year, something the next year. Every year there’s an ICC event.
“The ICC need to make sure that they create opportunities for players to play for their country on an ongoing basis with some key windows for them to represent in global competitions. The ICC are the custodians of cricket, and need to help countries sustain the game within their own spaces.
“In South Africa, we’ve managed to hold on to our top talent. However, New Zealand’s under pressure. You look at Trent Boult, you look at a few of the other players who have given up national contracts and gone to play these private leagues. A couple of other players globally have done similarly. We haven’t really had that in South Africa, apart from [Tabraiz] Shamsi. He gave up a national contract with the view of going to play a couple of these global leagues. Maybe one or two others will do the same, but I’m comfortable that for now we are okay.”
Leaf-Wright’s energy is palpable, and so too his passion for cricket. You suspect that as hard as he works, he’ll always be up for the next challenge, the next big game.
His sleeves are permanently rolled up and at 43 he still has time on his side to fulfil many ambitions.
The Future
“People ask [about my ambitions] and it’s to stay involved in the game, to make sure that South African cricket is moving at a rapid rate and gets back to its number one status in the world. I want to make sure that I’m here for the 2027 Cricket World Cup and that the final is hosted here at the Wanderers. I’ve got no greater ambition than to see the Proteas lift the World Cup trophy on this very field with some of the players that were in my hands when I was coaching – the likes of a Rabada, a Kwena Maphaka or a Mulder. All of these guys have in some way, shape or form been a part of my journey and my life since they were much younger and I was much younger. That would be a real moment of success.”
More immediately, Leaf-Wright wants to be central to South Africa’s climb to the number one spot. “I believe I’ve got a key role to play in that, a role that I believe people trust . . . people trust my voice and people trust my ability to steer ships in the right direction. I’m excited for the weeks, months and years ahead. I’m excited about where I’m going to take Lions cricket over the next couple of years, with a great board and a great team of people next to me, of players and administrators and schools and clubs. Post that, who knows? Maybe a Cricket South Africa role, maybe an ICC role, but I’m definitely staying in the game and the business of cricket to ensure it stays a global sport that is accessible to as many people in the world as possible.”
