CA’s culture of institutionalised arrogance exposed by review after ball-tampering scandal
THE review into Cricket Australia after the ball tampering scandal is scathing, with staff bullied by players and administrators creating an ugly culture stemming from a win at all costs mentality.
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AUSTRALIA players were lost in their own self-importance amid a culture of arrogance and bullying that began at the top of the administration and filtered through a playing group for which normal standards of decency didn’t apply a damning report has found.
The stench around the national team that has existed since the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in March was laid bare on Monday in the 145-page Longstaff review which was scathing in its appraisal of the state of the game at the highest level.
Cricket Australia chairman David Peever called the review, commissioned in the wake of the events in Cape Town, “confronting” and Test captain Tim Paine conceded the players were caught up in what the review labelled a “gilded bubble”.
CRISIS: CRICKET AUSTRALIA RELEASE SCATHING CULTURE REVIEW
The report found that within the upper echelons of the sport verbal abuse, so often referred to as sledging on the field, had become “normalised” and both players and management had “lost the human touch”.
Examples are cited of players bullying CA staff and concluded that the search for success had resulted in cricket “stumbling badly” and Australians felt a “personal sense of shame and grief” at what has been done in their name.
The review tabled 42 recommendations for change and separate to that Paine declared the players, accused of being unaware of the damning external judgment of their approach and actions, knew they had to be better.
“Potentially for a little bit we got wrapped up in our own self-importance. It’s not our cricket team, it’s Australia’s cricket team, and for a little while we lost that,” Paine said.
“It’s about getting outside of our bubble … to think more of others.”
Peever, who refused to stand down, apologised for the part CA management played in creating an environment which was not win at all costs, but winning regardless of the cost.
The review found that a “web of influences” below the surface of the team was as problematic as the decision made by banned trio Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft to take a piece of sandpaper on the field at the Newlands ground.
The Ethics Centre, which conducted the review, surveyed 469 people, including current and former players as well as CA staff and completed a further 56 interviews, believed to include suspended duo Smith and Warner.
Of the more than 150 current male and female players sent the survey, only 48 completed it and only nine former players did so.
But 220 CA staff members did take part and without nominating individuals, senior management were accused of being blinded by financial goals, disrespectful to the game, arrogant in dealing with stakeholders and of “losing the human touch”.
The pages of the report are littered with references to the overt presence of what are referred to as “shadow values” or underlying cultural behaviours displayed by players and staff.
Some of those include things like:
- Only results matter
- Australia needs us to win; the wellbeing of the nation is on our shoulders
- Combativeness and aggression is good
- Unleash the beast
- Keep your head down, don’t challenge or let yourself be challenged.
A culture of not speaking out played a key role in the ball-tampering incident in South Africa with senior players accused of failing to take responsibility for taking teammates to task.
The inability to understand the full consequences of their actions was also explained away by life inside the bubble.
The report suggested those players, and coaching staff, living inside the bubble would be “horrified” to realise how they were being judged, blinded by their “noble intentions” of winning.
“They just cannot see the unintended effects of what they do – yet for which they are ultimately responsible,” the report said.
The CA administration was heavily scrutinised for failing to follow through with its ethical responsibilities to the game.
A focus on the being number one team, with the highest paid players, and investing in high performance programs with that singular aim, had also created a “culture of exceptionalism”.
“We didn’t put sufficient emphasis on the spirit of the game in our pursuit of wanting to be the very we could on the field,” Peever said.
“The report is in places confronting, but we used the sentiments and the recommendations to move forward.”
Originally published as CA’s culture of institutionalised arrogance exposed by review after ball-tampering scandal