MELBOURNE: With its brand in tatters after the release of the Longstaff review, Cricket Australia will hope to move quickly to install a permanent chairman who can lead efforts to rebuild the board’s credibility.
After David Peever’s position became untenable and he resigned on Thursday, CA promoted deputy chairman Earl Eddings on an interim basis and expect to have a process and a timeline in place by early next week to pick a long-term successor.
But finding suitable candidates with the acumen to run a billion-dollar business and the pedigree to satisfy demands for a cricket “insider” to pilot the game may be no easy feat.
The role itself may seem a poisoned chalice for executives unwilling to get their hands dirty at the top of an organisation that the Longstaff report revealed was perceived in the game as “arrogant” and “controlling”.
One of the leading contenders has already ruled himself out.
CA board director Mark Taylor, a genuine “people’s choice” as the captain of brilliant Australian teams in the 1990s, said he felt it would be “inappropriate” to take the job as a media pundit in an interview with his employer Channel Nine.
With Taylor removing himself from the frame, the remaining candidates on CA’s board boast little pedigree in the sport, with only former test bowler Michael Kasprowicz having played the game at a high level.
None could be said to be corporate heavyweights, either, with Eddings, seen as a favourite to assume the role full-time, running a boutique risk management consultancy.
By the standards of competing sports administrations in Australia, Eddings would seem a lightweight choice next to the corporate clout of Richard Goyder, the former CEO of retail conglomerate Wesfarmers, who chairs the Australian Football League Commission.
Board director John Harnden, who organised a successful 2015 World Cup, is seen as another candidate, along with Jacquie Hey, the former Managing Director of Ericsson Australia and New Zealand who was CA’s first female director.
CA have tended to promote from within, and former Rio Tinto executive Peever succeeded Wally Edwards in 2015 after serving as a director on his board.
But the federation is already under huge scrutiny for elevating managers that failed to prevent the cultural failures detailed by Dr. Simon Longstaff.
