James Sutherland’s resignation was the chance for a fresh start, so is Kevin Roberts the right man for the CEO job?

JAMES Sutherland’s resignation as CA boss was a chance to start fresh and create a culture. Instead they appointed the man who, in his real only public performance, put the players completely off-side during last year’s pay dispute.

AMONG Kevin Roberts’ key responsibilities when he first joined the Cricket Australia executive in 2015 was to oversee people and culture.

It’s that area of the sport’s governing body which has seemingly devolved to such a point two external reviews are being conducted to try and understand just how bad things were.

There’s not just a review in to the inner workings of head-office, but a second one being conducted in to player behaviour.

ROBERTS CONFIRMED AS SUTHERLAND’S REPLACEMENT

The pay dispute last year suggested that head office and the players just did not get on, and the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa this year suggested the players were on the nose with the public too.

Cricket Australia announces Kevin Roberts as new CEO to replace James Sutherland

But after being officially appointed as the new chief executive, replacing James Sutherland who had been in the chair for 17 years, Roberts referred to an age-old idiom as his view on the current state of the nation.

“A saying that is very relevant to sport is that things are rarely as good or as bad as they seem,” Roberts said in a rare departure from his corporate style messaging during a 25-minute introduction to the world.

“That’s very true coming out of the Cape Town incident, which was, let’s be honest, a low point for our sport. But things are certainly not as bad as they may seem to some right now and we push forward with optimism.

“So I would characterise cricket’s relationship with its communities around the country as good, and we aspire to be great. Part of being a cricketing person is not to rest on your laurels and be satisfied with good.

Kevin Roberts CA's new Chief Executive Officer

“We all aspire to learn and develop and to be great.”

Roberts went on to speak of “uniting cricket” and making people feel “valued” and that people would be “inspired” by the way the national teams play.

It’s a healthy level of optimism from the new boss, and one he’ll certainly need to maintain as cricket attempts to claw back the level of unbridled respect and enthusiasm it used to enjoy without question.

But now there are questions everywhere, such as why CA decided to appoint a new CEO before the conclusion of those reviews, which will determine exactly how big Roberts’ task is, are in.

Those questions are louder given they opted for an internal appointment, and one who, in his real only public performance, put the players completely off-side during last year’s pay dispute.

Roberts basically accused the players of being greedy, messaging which moved the players closer to a strike than they had ever been. They even cancelled an Australia A tour during the ugly stoush, which only concluded when Roberts took a back seat and let Sutherland get the CA bus, which was careering off a cliff, back on the road.

That’s not to say Roberts didn’t do his job well. He was doing exactly as he was told to by his superiors, those same superiors who rubber-stamped his move in to the big chair this week.

CA chairman David Peever said the board, knowing what was coming with the review to be handed down this month, concluded an internal candidate would be “best placed to continue the ongoing momentum and success of Australian cricket”.

Peever talked about cricket going through a period of “transformative change” with “challenges at hand” but again, as he would, said Roberts was the best man to lead cricket through that time.

The suits at Jolimont all looked pleased as the positive talk rolled out at headquarters and Roberts, significantly, said he would travel to the United Arab Emirates this week to talk to the players he was so at odds with last year.

They have all been told to play nice, on field and off, recognising that they cricket loving public weren’t so loving.

It will however be the first real test of the positivity Roberts is looking for, and hoping for, a search which will become more real when he starts leaving his surrounds at CA headquarters, and enters the real furnace of a first home summer.

That will include twin reviews landing, a rebuilding national team for which success won’t come easy, and no doubt a scandal of too along the way.

Then he’ll really know if things are in fact as bad as they seem.

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