More execs quit Cricket Australia

The exodus at Cricket Australia grew on Wednesday as two more top executives quit the embattled governing body after a ball-tampering scandal and a scathing review triggered an outcry.

Team performance boss Pat Howard, who was due to leave next year, has brought forward his departure to next week, while broadcasting chief Ben Amarfio left on Wednesday, Cricket Australia said.

The latest departures come after chair David Peever was forced out last week and former Test captain Mark Taylor quit as a director.

Former CEO James Sutherland stepped down last month.

The “Sandpaper-gate” scandal, where the team was caught using sandpaper to alter the flight of the ball, also cost former coach Darren Lehmann his job and prompted lengthy bans for three players.

CA said the latest changes signalled a “new chapter” under the leadership of incoming CEO Kevin Roberts.

“I think it is important that we give cricket a fresh start and we start looking forward so we that can heal,” Roberts told reporters in Melbourne.

“We are as transparent as we can be in this situation,” he said when pressed for more details about why the pair were leaving Cricket Australia.

Roberts said there would be no further “significant change at the executive level in the months ahead”.

He said CA was considering a demand by the players’ union that the ball-tampering bans on former captain Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft be lifted immediately.

CA has come under pressure from the Australian Cricketers’ Association to end the bans following the release of the Longstaff review, which laid some of the blame for the Cape Town scandal at the door of the board.