Summer of cricket: White Ferns become first international team to hit our shores since onset of COVID-19
Cricket’s officially back with the New Zealand women’s team touching down in Brisbane, but serious question marks remain around the men’s schedule and playing in Western Australia.
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Cricket Australia’s ‘Mission Impossible’ summer has officially launched, with the New Zealand women’s team arriving in Brisbane.
The White Ferns are the first international sports team since the NRL Warriors to arrive on Australian shores since the onset of COVID-19 and will be able to train while quarantining for two weeks in a Brisbane hotel.
While the NRL had plenty of hoops to jump through with its own ‘Project Apollo’, cricket has the most complex assignment in dealing with international borders — with the New Zealand women the forerunners for the Indian men’s team’s arrival for a four Test series later in the summer.
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Australia’s World Champion women will kick off the summer on September 26 with a series of Twenty20 and one-day internationals against the White Ferns, all taking place in a bubble at Allan Border Field in Brisbane.
Australia is close to announcing its men’s Test schedule, but there remains enormous doubt over whether the slated Afghanistan Test will happen due to the West Australian Government’s refusal to let international teams quarantine.
Queensland and South Australia shape as CA’s go-to states for launching the summer.
Meanwhile, Victoria has indicated it will not support a push to overhaul Cricket Australia’s board following the sport’s year of drama.
NSW and Queensland have both called for Governance and personnel changes at the top level of the game, but the other four States appear far less enthusiastic about tipping the current board model on its head.
Cricket Victoria’s new chairman David Maddocks said his board is yet to discuss the push for landmark changes to the game’s national leadership base, but made it clear he would be personally opposed to the push being led by Queensland and the powerful NSW.
“Our board will decide on what Is in the best interests of cricket in Victoria which I think has got to include considerations of stability and continuity,” Maddocks told Gerard Whateley on SEN.
“NSW and Queensland’s (proposal), it’s ultimately a matter for them. But Cricket Victoria under my watch, we will be a team player but as a member of that federated model.
“Particularly in this time of crisis we want to be part of the solution and work with CA.”
NSW chairman John Knox has flagged his intention to discuss with other States his view that the game needs a new board and Governance model to better represent State interests.
The feeling out of Tasmania and Western Australia is they would not agitate for such a massive change.
Victoria are the first State to publicly declare their support for the current system, although Maddocks refused to label NSW “rogue”.
“Well look I wouldn’t use the term rogue State, they’re entitled to their position,” he said.
“… I see no reason for change at this point in time. I think the model that’s in place is the appropriate governance structure. That’s my personal view but our board will decide what is obviously in the best interests of cricket in Victoria.”
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Pressure has intensified on the Cricket Australia board, after NSW joined forces with Queensland in pushing a bid for change at the top level of the game.
At Cricket NSW’s annual general meeting on Monday night, Chairman John Knox addressed the turbulence that has rocked the sport this year and called for a reworking of CA’s board and governance model.
The fresh push for an overhaul of the board comes in the wake of Queensland Cricket Chairman Chris Simpson’s labelling cricket’s centralised governance model as broken.
Sources say that Knox told the NSW AGM that it was clear Cricket Australia needed strong leaders to deal with crisis situations and declared he would be discussing the need for change with CA and other States in the weeks to come.
Cricket Australia will hold its annual general meeting next month, but is confident NSW and Queensland wouldn’t have the support of other States to stage any sort of coup.
Knox has flagged his intention to present NSW and Queensland’s case to other States.
Queensland’s suggestion is that State associations should get an active seat at the table on the CA board to reduce a disconnect that exists across the game with head office that was laid bare over the past few months.
The fear with a Federation model is that consensus on key issues could become difficult if States have competing vested interests.
NSW admits that system would have its drawbacks, but insists the status quo can’t remain.
CA Chairman Earl Eddings has another year to run on his tenure, and received a boost on Monday following David Maddocks’ appointment as Cricket Victoria Chairman.
Eddings would reportedly have Maddocks’ backing as chairman.
In his AGM address, it’s understood NSW Chairman Knox again questioned some of the key decisions made by CA during the COVID-19 period, namely the decision to stand down all staff, which ultimately led to Kevin Roberts’ axing as chief executive.
CA’s previous Chairman David Peever stood down from his role after NSW boss Knox told him he had lost the State’s support.
Channel 7 boss James Warburton recently lashed Cricket Australia’s administration as “incompetent”, although interestingly, the States have put past differences aside and come out in support of CA and their position not to cave into broadcaster pleas for TV rights discounts.
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Originally published as Summer of cricket: White Ferns become first international team to hit our shores since onset of COVID-19