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MELBOURNE: The major overhaul of Australian cricket has moved from the field to the boardroom, with senior officials supporting a structural change which chairman Wally Edwards has described as “the most sweeping reforms in our 106-year history.”
A review by governance experts David Crawford and Colin Carter recommended a reduction in the size of the Cricket Australia board from 14 directors to nine, the introduction of independent members and the inclusion of the CEO as an executive director on the board.
The existing board contains three members from each of the Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia state associations, two each from Queensland and Western Australia and one from Tasmania.
The review proposes that each of the six state associations have a resident member of the board, with three independent members to be recruited based on skill and experience.
The CA board endorsed the recommendations on Thursday and sent the review findings back to the state associations. Edwards was confident the overhaul would be ratified and hoped the changes could be implemented by June 30.
“We will make hopefully quicker, better decisions ... we will have hopefully a more capable board,” Edwards was quoted as saying.
“We will make better decisions and hopefully more money in the game going down to the grass roots.”
Australian players' union president Greg Dyer said the changes would bring the board into the modoern era.
“We're going from an amateur administration to a professional administration for a professional sport and that's just got to be a good thing,” Dyer said.
“You'll see a much more business-like approach and more accountability.”
Edwards predicted the board would be diverse, including some cricketers, some business people and the inclusion of female members.
“You would want some cricket background, but you don't want nine former test captains or nine opening bats,” he said.
Australia's home Ashes series defeat last January caused a nationwide rethink of how the game is played and administered across the country.
The Australians dominated international cricket for more than a decade but slumped as low as No. 5 in the test rankings after the Ashes series loss to England, and then failed to make the final at a World Cup for the first time since 1992.
An overhaul of the structure around the national team has been completed, with a new captain, coach, selectors and a general manager of team performance all appointed in recent months.
