NEW CRICKET TARGET
HAVING culled their own head man, Cricket Australia power brokers may now ask the players to do the same.
In the hours after Kevin Roberts’ stunning axing as chief executive yesterday, the gloom surrounding cricket immediately brightened.
CA went back on an original bid to slash matches out of its domestic schedule, chairman Earl Eddings declared he was confident broadcasters would pay their next TV rights payment in full, and optimism grew that national team high performance staff would be spared major job cuts in today’s round of redundancies.
However, there is still a feeling within CA that the game won’t get the clean slate it needs until the players’ association also moves on their boss, Greg Dyer.
Roberts was tarnished by his involvement in the ugly pay war with players in 2017 and his rapid demise yesterday was proof that he was never going to be capable of developing a constructive working relationship with the top players.
Along with losing the trust of the board, it was a key reason why his position became untenable and there will be a push on for CA to find a new CEO from outside their Melbourne HQ bubble that won’t bring baggage from past roles in cricket or other sports.
Privately, though, CA figures feel Dyer’s ongoing presence at the helm of the players also brings its own level of accumulated scar tissue which is jeopardising progress.
The more immediate scrutiny is on the actions of the CA board itself, after Eddings yesterday took full responsibility for the controversial cost-cutting decisions, while maintaining a leadership change was needed and it was Roberts who had to go.
Eddings denied Roberts was a scapegoat.
“Not at all. I think Kevin and I and the board have worked out over the last three to four months that things do need to change,” Eddings said. “Kevin has tendered his resignation. It was agreed by us and we’re moving forward.”
Former Cricket NSW chairman John Warn came within a whisker of being appointed James Sutherland’s successor as CA chief in 2017, only for the board to endorse Roberts.
Current CA board member John Harnden and WA cricket chief Christina Matthews were also candidates in 2017 who may again feature prominently in the reckoning, along with interim CA CEO Nick Hockley, who is in charge of the T20 World Cup campaign.