Why Christina Matthews is the right woman to lead Cricket Australia out of its latest mess
WACA chief executive Christina Matthews is the kind of fearless, fair and authentic operator CA needs if it’s to change its damaged reputation and win back the trust of players and states. Just ask Dennis Lillee ...
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Once you’ve stood up to Dennis Lillee in his own backyard, there aren’t many things in life that can intimidate you.
Western Australia chief executive Christina Matthews is the kind of fearless operator Cricket Australia needs if it’s to change its damaged reputation.
The only question is whether the game’s conservative Melbourne power base will be fearless enough to seriously consider the credentials of someone not afraid to rock the boat.
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The former Australian women’s wicketkeeper put her hand up for the top job last time around only to be quickly crossed off the list as a genuine candidate because CA deemed she didn’t have the business experience required.
But how is Kevin Roberts’ business acumen working out for them now?
Roberts was well-meaning and any questionable number crunching on his part about the likely impacts of COVID-19 are as much the responsibility of his board, but his shiny veneer made it hard for people to accept what he was selling was genuine.
For all the change the cultural review brought about on the field in Australian cricket, stakeholders right across the game still feel head office can’t be trusted or believed.
Matthews is not corporate in any way shape or form, but that should be seen as a desperately needed breath of fresh air.
Some inside the CA bubble don’t like that she is a robust voice. But again, rather than that being a deal breaker, it is exactly why they should be listening.
She understands players and the States - the two groups CA has ostracised, and she has the loyalty of her staff, something cricket has burnt to the ground in the space of two months.
Rather than pre-prepared motherhood statements and marketing catch phrases, Matthews simply says what she wants to say and her authenticity is her greatest asset.
When Perth was snubbed by CA for an Indian Test match, she gave them a spray. Not completely unexpected. But when fellow West Australians parochially talked up the merits of stealing the Boxing Day Test from Melbourne? Matthews was just as straight in dismissing it as nonsense.
Just like she held her nerve against Lillee and the hostile environment of WA cricket over the future of the famous WACA ground, prompting the greatest fast bowler of all time to quit in anger.
It made her some short-term enemies but earned her long-term respect.
Matthews is confident and assured and has cut-through even in a sport where administrators aren’t the big names they are in the footy codes.
When Cameron Bancroft returned from South Africa in disgrace, Matthews’ ability to condemn his actions while still supporting him through his darkest hour, provided a measured voice in a time of great stress and was a lesson in how to lead in a crisis.
There is no sense she’d be overawed at all by the challenge of being the first female chief executive of Australia’s national sport.
Even if it is true that economic expertise is not her strength (she is the former commercial executive of Cricket NSW), hire a numbers person as the 2IC and build a team around her like you would a first-grade coach.
Cricket may find a better candidate out there than Matthews in their global search.
But the key point is they need a leader not a business person, and on that front she is the real deal.
Originally published as Why Christina Matthews is the right woman to lead Cricket Australia out of its latest mess