CA axe falls on Howard

Maligned performance boss departs amid crisis

CRICKET Australia boss Kevin Roberts says it’s imperative to appoint a cricket person to spearhead the national team’s resurgence after the axing of controversial highperformance boss Pat Howard.

As fallout from the damning Longstaff cultural review continued, Roberts decided to bring forward Howard’s expected exit.

He had signalled his intention to resign after next year’s Ashes campaign in England but Roberts, who has been in charge less than two weeks, said it was important to give Australian cricket a “fresh start”.

The decision brought to an end the seven-year reign of the former Wallaby who was criticised for failing to have a “feel” for cricket during his time in charge.

Howard enjoyed World Cup successes for the men’s and women’s teams, but also oversaw a program seen by many as disrespecting the game at state and local levels.

He was in charge of the players as well as coaching, pathways and umpires and had the largest number of CA staff under him around the country.

Former national women’s captain Belinda Clark will fill the role during the process to find Howard’s replacement.

“I think it’s imperative that we do have deep cricket experience in the role going forward,” Roberts said.

“Pat had a much deeper experience of cricket than he was given credit for, and had a lot or cricket experts around him. I’ll be seeking the council of cricket experts in terms of determining future direction.”

On what Roberts said was another “significant” day for cricket, CA’s leading media rights executive, Ben Amarfio, was also sacked.

Despite some on-field success, the Longstaff review was scathing of the high performance unit, established and run by Howard, claiming it had created a “culture of exceptionalism” and a gulf between the elite players and everyone else in the game.

Roberts conceded that a chasm had been created between CA management and the players, and vowed to fix that as a priority.

“There is no doubt we need to face up to the review and it acknowledged the organisation hasn’t been united enough across the playing and non playing sides and we are really committed to driving that unification,” he said.

“It’s important we show leadership, that we are not about words but actions.”