Cricket Australia CEO’s bizarre attempt to soothe player tensions
CRICKET Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts has thrown himself at the mercy of his players in a bold bid to win back broken trust created by the pay war and Longstaff report.
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CRICKET Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts has thrown himself at the mercy of his players in a bold bid to win back broken trust.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal an extraordinary first meeting between Roberts and the Australian team a fortnight ago in Abu Dhabi where the new boss actually invited players to tell him exactly what they thought of him.
Roberts was used by dumped Cricket Australia Chairman David Peever to marshal the governing body’s bloody approach to last year’s pay war and won few friends among the playing group in the process.
But in a sign Roberts understands the magnitude of the deep-seated relationship trauma outlined in the cultural review, the former NSW Sheffield Shield batsman actually asked players’ union head Alistair Nicholson, who he went to war against last year, to sit in on his opening address as CEO.
Former great Andrew Symonds claimed Australian cricket was doomed as long as trust between players and administrators remained so fractured, and Roberts has at least read the room and opened the lines for players to get any lingering animosity off their chests.
“I actually invited the players to hold me to account for my actions in the way that I seek to build a closer relationship between CA and the ACA (Australian Cricketers’ Association),” Roberts told The Daily Telegraph.
“The players have been really open. I’ll be working hard to ensure our players are really embraced as a key part of Cricket Australia and they really feel part of it.
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“Having Alistair in the room when I initially addressed the Australian men’s team in the UAE was part of that.”
Roberts goes back more than 20 years with head coach Justin Langer, who he attended the Australian Institute of Sport with when the pair were in their late teens and early 20s.
The CEO described the response he got back from players as “warm” although the repair job Roberts has in front of him has been made all the more difficult by the feeling across the game that CA administrators haven’t been sufficiently accountable for the cultural environment an independent review deemed led to the scandal in Cape Town.
Two of Australia’s best cricket journalists, The Courier Mail’s Robert Craddock and the Australian’s Peter Lalor join Cricket Unfiltered host Andrew Menczel to discuss the culture review findings, and to preview Australia’s ODI series against South Africa.
Australian Cricketers’ Association representatives declined an invitation to attend Peever’s press conference on Monday where the cultural review was unveiled, highlight the schism that remains.
Last week Roberts did his best to try and unite the disgruntled State Associations as he got the game’s chief executives and Chairmen together for an address at the MCG.
Roberts replayed Paralympic Champion Kurt Fearnley’s moving and inspirational acceptance speech for The Don Award at a recent ceremony in Melbourne to set the tone for how he wants the forgotten Spirit of Cricket to be rediscovered by the game.
“I shared my vision with State and Territory Chairmen and CEOs and part of that was to really reflect on our desire to deepen our relationships across Australian cricket and to communicate very openly,” Roberts said.
“We actually sat in the stands at the MCG and I played Kurt Fearnley’s acceptance speech for The Don award. His words were inspirational.
“I really wanted us to do that during a Shield match (between NSW and Victoria) as a reminder of what we’re here for and how important domestic competition. Kurt’s respect for what Sir Donald Bradman stood for was fantastic.
“He even reminded us that (sport is) as much about humility and integrity as it is about excellence. Kurt had a significant focus on community and given our purpose under my leadership is to unite and inspire communities through cricket, the message was really consistent with our higher purpose and what we want to stand for.”
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Originally published as Cricket Australia CEO’s bizarre attempt to soothe player tensions
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