Former Cricket Australia high performance chief Pat Howard in named as key administrator ahead of Brisbane Olympics

Australia is already on the green and gold runway for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and now a high-profile former Cricket Australia executive has been appointed to a key role.

The former Wallaby who shook up Australia’s cricket scene has been called in to help guide the nation to their next home Olympics.

Pat Howard is making a return to sports administration nearly five years after standing down as Cricket Australia’s team performance chief, and will head up Strategy for the Australian Sports Commission in the countdown to Brisbane 2032.

Serving as Sports Commission CEO Kieren Perkins’ right-hand man, Howard will enter the Olympics fray at one of the most critical junctures in Australian sports history, with the opportunity to shape non-professional codes for generations to come.

It is crucial Australia can guarantee the future prosperity of sports like swimming, athletics and hockey, and if the country wants to win medals in Brisbane, the journey has to start now.

Alongside Perkins, Howard shapes as a key decision-maker.

Howard was at times a polarising figure in cricket, but it was on the back of his forward thinking that Australia managed to retain the Ashes in England in 2019, after he pushed for Duke’s balls to be used in the Sheffield Shield.

Pat Howard has been called in to help guide the Brisbane Olympics. / AFP PHOTO / SAEED KHAN

Although some tried to use Howard’s rugby background as a knock on his cricketing credentials, a large number of senior officials and players from that era grew to hold great respect for his courage, work ethic, meticulous planning and willingness to shake the tree and question traditional thinking.

After he was asked to bring forward his departure from Cricket Australia in the wake of the game’s tumultuous cultural review in late 2018, Howard has spent the past four years out of the sporting spotlight as CEO of AXL listed company, MSL Solutions.

However, Howard recently announced the successful sale of the business to a private equity firm and signalled his excitement to be returning to the cut and thrust of sport.

“I have a new role back in the sports industry which I am looking forward to,” Howard wrote on social media.

Howard will start his role as Executive General Manager Strategy, Insights and Innovation at the Australian Sports Commission in July.

He will be based in Olympics heartland in Brisbane and will travel regularly to ASC offices in Canberra, where he will be one of eight executives reporting directly to Perkins following an ASC restructure earlier this year.

Howard (L) was at times a polarising figure in cricket. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Howard’s remit will extend from high performance to grassroots and he will have oversight over commercial and strategic partnerships, research and innovation, sport strategy and investment and marketing.

With the Olympics less than a decade away, the Australian Sports Commission is perhaps the most important body in Australian sport, with the Brisbane Olympics presenting a once in a generation opportunity that cannot be fumbled.

Governments have been warned Australia faces an Olympics disaster if it doesn’t invest more money and resources into grassroots sports rather than political parties committing major investment to build sporting stadiums every time an election is called.

The Rich People’s Games? Outrage grows over Paris ticket prices

President Macron’s promise that the Paris Olympics will be a “People’s Games” is in doubt after it emerged that the cheapest seat for the opening pageant will cost euros 2700 ($4396 AUD).

The steep price of a spot on the Seine embankment to watch the parade of waterborne athletes on July 26 next year became clear when places at the opening ceremony went on sale.

The authorities say that a free view of the four-mile procession through the centre of the city will be available from some spots, but word of the seat price has compounded anger over the cost of watching the Olympic events.

Joining in a chorus of contempt, Alexis Corbiere, a leading MP for the radical left Unbowed France party, noted that euros 2700 was more than double the French monthly minimum wage.

“For these 2024 Games, the important thing is not to take part but to be one of the richest people on this planet,” he tweeted.

Head of the Paris Organising Committee Tony Estanguet. Picture: Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Initially 600,000 people were to have watched the pioneering water parade of 10,000 athletes aboard 180 boats, but for security reasons that plans have been scaled back to about 450,000 and 150 craft.

The organising committee, headed by Tony Estanguet, is under fire for providing too few cheap seats in the two rounds of sales that began with 3.25 million tickets sold in February and March.

In the latest sale, of 1.5 million tickets, which opened a week ago, some categories have sold out but the remaining seats cost hundreds of euros. Entry to athletics begins at euros 680, swimming at euros 500 and gymnastics at euros 480.

The organisers say that high demand had meant that cheaper tickets, allotted by a draw, were snapped up within minutes at the start of each sale period.

Four million people signed up for the chance of entry to the second sale of 1.5 million tickets.

Estanguet, a former champion slalom canoeist, has argued that tickets are less expensive than at the 2012 London Games, but critics have pointed out that London offered double the number of low-price tickets.

Estanguet said he realised that the second round of ticket sales would “cause disappointment and frustration”.

An early artists impression of how the Paris Olympics opening ceremony could looks. Picture: Florian Hulleu / Paris 2024

Amelie Oudea Castera, the sports Minister and a former professional tennis player, defended the prices. “The Olympic Games are every four years and ours are the usual prices. We don’t ask ourselves these questions when we pay to go see a Madonna show,” she said. Nevertheless, a poll for RTL radio found that 82 per cent of the French population believed the tickets to be overpriced.

The organisers are counting on tickets bringing in euros 1.4 billion of the total games budget of euros 4.4 billion. At the end of the year, a third draw is intended to release the sale of the remaining 5.5 million tickets.

Priority is being given at the Games to expensive “hospitality” packages, which are expected to generate 15 per cent of the takings through the sale of 870,000 tickets that give entry to VIP venues and other sites.

Places on a hospitality boat moored on the Seine close to the Trocadero, where the opening pageant finishes, are on offer at euros 12,500 a piece.

— The Times UK

Originally published as Former Cricket Australia high performance chief Pat Howard in named as key administrator ahead of Brisbane Olympics