WACA chief attacks CA over tampering fallout

WACA chief Christina Matthews has launched an extraordinary broadside at Cricket Australia, blaming poor ticket sales for the Test at Perth Stadium on the organisation’s handling of the ball-tampering scandal.

Ticket sales have been disappointing for the second Test against India with the new 60,000-capacity stadium and an enthralling series failing to draw punters.

Only 20,746 fans attended on Friday and 19,042 on Saturday — well down on the 35,000 opening-day crowd the WACA had initially hoped to attract.

Matthews, who was interviewed to replace James Sutherland in CA’s top job, says cricket’s governing body should have foreseen the fallout from the scandal and the subsequent cultural reviews.

“I think Australian cricket as an entity is on the nose and a little bit of trust has been lost,” she told SEN radio yesterday.

“Certain things happen … and you’ve got to work a lot harder than you might have had to to get them all back.

“What happened in South Africa was kind of an insult to everybody and how they feel about the game.

“We follow that up a few months later with the culture review and, let’s say, the lack of foresight on Cricket Australia’s part to see how the public were going to react to that. “You kind of live and learn.” Matthews said she had not been surprised by the damning findings that led to several key figures at CA falling on their swords.

“You kind of always know when things are not going well, particularly when you work in it day to day,” she said.

“It probably surprised me that others were so surprised. It was obvious from a team perspective that the team’s culture had been waning.

“There’s evidence now to suggest that in terms of surveys that have been done and haven’t probably seen the light of day.

“We’ve had a lot of change … James being around for 17 years, that’s a really difficult thing to pull off, being in the one job for 17 years and nothing really changing.”

Matthews was pipped for the CA chief executive role by Kevin Roberts, formerly its chief operating officer.

She said she believed CA was not ready for a female chief executive, noting she had been the first woman interviewed for the position.

Matthews also dismissed talk of Perth Stadium making a play for the Boxing Day or New Year’s Tests, saying the priority would instead be securing a day-night Test.