Review damns Australia’s win ‘at all costs’ way
Print Edition
Cricket Australia has been described as arrogant and bent on winning at all costs in a review of its culture and governance commissioned after the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
The review by Simon Longstaff of The Ethics Center, released yesterday, said administrators should bear as much blame as captain Steve Smith, vice captain David Warner and batsman Cameron Bancroft, who were suspended for their roles in the incident at Cape Town in March.
The attempt by Bancroft to use sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball during the test match, with the knowledge of Smith and Warner, caused “grief” among the Australian public, Longstaff said.
The 147-page report, based on interviews with players, sponsors and other stakeholders, said CA had consistently failed to live up to its values and principles and a culture of disrespect and bullying ran through the organization. “The most common description of CA is as ‘arrogant’ and ‘controlling,’” the report said. “The core complaint is that the organization does not respect anyone other than its own.
“Players feel that they are treated as commodities. There is a feeling among some state and territory associations that they are patronized while sponsors believe their value is defined solely in transactional terms.”
CA Chairman David Peever said some good would come from the report’s 42 recommendations.
“We didn’t put sufficient emphasis on the spirit of the game in our pursuit of wanting to be the very best we could on the field,” he said. “That’s been recognized and we’re using the report now as an opportunity to do better.”
Longstaff’s findings are couched in unusually powerful terms. He says the grief felt by the Australian public in the wake of the ball tampering affair “was linked to a sense of shame not felt since the days of the perfectly legal, but what some may consider unsporting, under-arm bowling incident.” That was a reference to the infamous under-arm delivery by Trevor Chappell in a one-dayer against New Zealand in 1981.
“Responsibility for that larger picture lies with CA and not just the players held directly responsible for the appalling incidents” in Cape Town.
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