Ex-chief insists: I worked for cricket, not Cricket Australia

JAMES Sutherland finished a 17-year tenure as Cricket Australia chief executive last Thursday. It’s been a tumultuous journey, with cricket lurching from scandal to scandal, but it has also seen three World Cup wins, Ashes wins, the rise of Big Bash and women’s cricket. The past two years, however, with a pay war and the balltampering scandal in South Africa, could define Sutherland’s time at the top.

Q: Have the past two years — a pay war with the players then the unprecedented suspensions after the ball-tampering scandal — been the toughest of your time in charge?

A: I don’t think any period has been tougher than any other. If you go right back to the start, I was 34 when I became chief executive, there was no one more surprised than me when I got the job. I had some ideas as to what I wanted to do, but didn’t really know how to do it. I was pretty green. The job has always been tough and you evolve with it. The game has grown and got more complex and the nature of the modern age and the digital age changes the way we do business and the way the media reports it, and all that, which adds to the complexity. But there have been some big issues along the way that we have had to deal with. At those times, it’s just head down, bum up and you try to work your way through them.

Were you as prepared as you needed to be for crisis management as much as running the business of cricket?

I got a fair insight into that when I first started at Cricket Australia and I was on the senior management team, working under Malcolm Speed and there were two or three major issues. But until you are sitting up there in the media conferences, you don’t quite know how to handle them and whether you are able to get through. That was a very steep learning curve in those days.

Given the number of crises during your time, did you get better at handling them?

I’m not sure if I am any better at that. But with experience comes an ability to understand how things are going to play out and also you come to accept and acknowledge that even though you might want things to speed up or go away, there’s an element of process that is important to work through.

Did you deal with the Cape Town scandal well? Was it the greatest test of your leadership?

I haven’t really thought about it in that way. It was certainly a tough week, and there were a lot of people that said I just had to jump on a plane and do this and this and this.The reality was we had to think through process, and the first and foremost thing in my mind was a matter of thinking through natural justice and process and making sure that we uncovered the truth.

Are you satisfied you got the truth from all involved and that the suspensions were the right decision?

I’m certainly comfortable with the level of detail and the depth of the investigation and the findings. We had to respond to that and make decisions.

People said you, or CA, had it in for David Warner after his part in the pay war. Did you?

I just don’t see in any way that that is true. We worked through a process and the reality is he got the same suspension as our captain [Steve Smith] and a slightly longer suspension than Cameron [Bancroft]. We know that the three players have had a tough period and, in some ways, might get tougher as the summer starts and they miss out on playing cricket now. But as I have told them individually, all of them, we just want them to show they are worthy of playing cricket for Australia again.

You were seen as public enemy No.1 by plenty when the suspensions were put in place, and through the pay war too. Did you feel personally vilified during that period?

I try not to read stuff in the papers and I basically say to those in my comms team to just tell me what I need to know. From that perspective, I have always believed you manage the distractions and focus on the process, and that’s the best way to do a job well.

Do you walk away content with relationships with people in the game — grassroots, executives, players — that you had to fight with at times?

I like to think I have great friends in the game and others may not be as friendly, but I hope there is a high level of respect. Certainly there is no one in the game that I have come across that I don’t respect. I don’t actually consider myself an employee of Cricket Australia. I don’t work for Cricket Australia, I work for cricket.

What stands out for you during your time in charge?

There’s one moment which just blew me away and that was the tsunami game that we played here at the MCG in 2005. From memory, it was less than 20 days after the Boxing Day tsunami, we had a full house for an Asian XI against the rest of the world. All the best players flew in for it. It was an amazing collective effort, and we raised $15 million, everyone got behind it. It was uplifting to respond to such an enormous tragedy. But also to see the way cricket galvanises people all over the world. It was a great reminder of what cricket means around the world and what a difference it can make.