Auckland clubs hitting out at leaders
Sticky wicket: Auckland board leadership under fire over appointment, resignations
Claims of a “farcical” appointment process at Auckland Cricket and an exodus from the board has renewed calls for a change of leadership at the troubled association.
According to multiple sources, board chairman Nick Albrecht and chief executive Iain Laxon were to face club delegates last night, many of whom are angry at what they believe was a botched appointment for the newly-created director of performance and talent; an issue that saw a leading candidate walk away and three board members — Brett Hollister, Chris Glackin and Paula Gruber — resign.
The position was created in part to address fundamental concerns with the high performance arm of Auckland Cricket, which lags behind most of the other five associations in key areas.
The sources, some of whom chose to remain anonymous because they were either not cleared to speak on behalf of their clubs, or feared retribution from the board, had a wide range of alleged grievances, including:
● A high-performance subcommittee being ignored.
● Three board members resigning as a result.
● A potential home ground move.
● A damning independent highperformance report by former All Black Ant Strachan.
● A lack of suitable nets and indoor training facilities in the city.
● What is believed to be a poor record of talent identification.
● An underperforming first-class side.
● Claims of damaging board politicking.
“Yes, the reason I walked away from the board was the appointment process,” Gruber told the Herald. “It was very disappointing.”
Gruber said she had a 30-year association with Auckland Cricket, going back to her time as an age-grade player, through to the Hearts. She played two one-day internationals for the White Ferns in 2000.
Glackin, another board member with a long-standing relationship with cricket in the city after close to a decade as Takapuna chairman, did not want to comment on specifics but confirmed anger at key decisions around the appointment of the director of performance and discussions around moving the association to Colin Maiden Park were behind his decision to walk.
There has been talk of dissatisfaction at the Albrecht-led board for some time, particularly by those whose allegiances lie beyond the “big four” city-based clubs of Grafton, Parnell, Cornwall and University.
That boiled over when ACA board member Campbell Newman moved a no-confidence motion against the chair in September last year. Albrecht saw that off and Newman is no longer on the board.
The current flashpoint, however, is the appointment process around the director of performance.
An interview panel convened that initially included Glackin, Strachan, Laxon and New Zealand Cricket’s Bryan Stronach.
The first round of interviews was inconclusive and although Stronach could not attend the second round, the three-man panel decided in favour of an ex-Auckland representative and ahead of Daniel Archer, who was part of Northern Districts’ high performance set-up.
The Herald has agreed not to publish the preferred candidate’s name so as not to compromise his employment. He did, however, confirm he had withdrawn from consideration because of uncertainty with the process and a subsequent employment opportunity.
A high performance subcommittee had agreed unanimously to endorse his nomination for the position, several sources said.
The process began to “unravel”, with elements on the ACA board pointing to the absence of Stronach at the second round of interviews.
The board decided to ask NZC to review the two candidates. Stronach came back into the process to review it alongside Martin Croy, the high performance manager at Canterbury Cricket, and a referee of Archer.
They recommended Archer for the role.
“We are delighted to have someone of Daniel’s quality and calibre join us to lead our high performance environment,” Laxon said in a release.
“Daniel has a fantastic knowledge of the cricket environment in New Zealand and proven leadership qualities that will help us develop exceptional systems and people within our HP system.”
The issue was described as a
“farce” by one source, however, and saw the resignation of some members of the board.
Hollister, who was chief executive of North Harbour Rugby for 11 years after working with Canterbury Rugby and the Crusaders, was left appalled.
Hollister said he “voluntarily chose to resign” from the ACA board due
to what he believed was “a lack of alignment around key values, trust and integrity”.
“I worry for the future of cricket in Auckland under the current regime,” he said.
Along with Newman’s departure, that means half the board has left or quit in a year.
Laxon told the Herald he had confidence in the process.
“When you have board members resigning, it’s not ideal,” he said, “and not how you want the process to run.
“In terms of the actual appointment — the interviews and the involvement of the parties within it — it was a really good process.”
Laxon said the board seeking NZC input before making the appointment was a “logical alignment” given the aims of any major association was to add value to cricket in the country.
ACA’s leadership is expected to face pushback when they front the clubs.
In an email to clubs, Laxon wrote: “Following a disagreement at board level on a key strategic appointment for Auckland Cricket, three directors of Auckland Cricket have tendered their resignation from the board, as they are entitled to do.
“Whilst this is unfortunate the Auckland Cricket board remains committed to working collaboratively to ensure effective leadership of the organisation and focusing on the delivery of our new strategy.”
In replies seen by the Herald, club chairs and delegates pressed Laxon.
“To say that three board members’ resignations [from a total of seven] was brought about due to a ‘disagreement’ would surely be understating the circumstances,” replied the chairwoman of Takapuna Cricket Club Susanne Martin, who expressed the opinion that there must have been compelling reasons for the mass resignations.
She was quickly supported in her request for details from the chairs of the North Shore, Waitakere and Kumeu clubs.
One high-level source said that while things were far from perfect at the association, they were sympathetic to the plight faced by Laxon and Albrecht, saying that while politics probably played a part in the final decision to appoint Archer, politics also played a “huge part” in the push for the unnamed candidate, too.
Another source said Auckland Cricket’s issues should be front and centre of New Zealand Cricket’s agenda in future.
“If New Zealand Cricket are to continue to punch above their weight, they need to do something about their biggest association not contributing in the way it should from a playing, governance or commercial point of view,” the source said.
They point to a major association in New Zealand’s biggest city that has lost a number of its biggest talents over the years, including batsman Kyle Jamieson (since returned as a world-class bowler), James Neesham, Finn Allen, Jeet Raval, Roneel Hira and latterly Will O’Rourke.
There is also pressing concern about the association’s failure to find a suitable home base, with widespread disbelief that Colin Maiden Park, in Auckland’s east, remains part of discussions.
Laxon confirmed there was no “proposal” in place to move to the Merton Rd venue, though acknowledged that it was part of the organisation’s strategy that could accommodate the association’s highperformance and administrative needs, and due to Colin Maiden’s hosting of domestic cricket in the past, it was “part of the conversation”.