Australian Federal Police and Cricket Australia investigate assault allegations from 1980s

Cricket Australia is fully co-operating with an investigation into the alleged abuse of a former U19 Australian player as a deep dive into cricket’s archives revealed no evidence of a tour report.

The Australian Federal Police and Cricket Australia are reviewing claims that a teenage representative player was assaulted in the 1980s.

Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley rang alleged abuse victim Jamie Mitchell within 20 minutes of being told of his harrowing account of his time on an overseas tour.

But the full story of what happened to Australian under 19s representative Mitchell on that tour in the 1980s may never be known after a deep dive into cricket’s archives revealed no evidence of a report on the tour that allegedly went missing.

On the same day that Cricket Australia announced the captain for its under 19s World Cup team this year, the game was dealing with disturbing details of how a similar tour in the 1980s changed promising Victorian batsman Mitchell’s life forever, and how the trip left teammates disgusted at inappropriate behaviour they witnessed.

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Jamie Mitchell was part of the U19 touring team in 1985.

News Corp understands that one player from the tour was in tears reading the allegations on Sunday morning, while another member of the playing group said he had to take a 5km walk to process the upset at those distressing old memories coming back.

Hockley said he first heard about the allegations when he was sent a message by then Cricket Australia Chairman Earl Eddings in August, prompting him to immediately pick up the phone to personally call Mitchell.

“I got forwarded a message which had no details at all, just saying that Jamie Mitchell wanted to speak to someone. So I literally … within 20 minutes, picked up the phone,” he said.

“We didn’t go into any of the details because it wasn’t appropriate to. I just said, ‘if you have something you want to report, here is our head of integrity details, they’re the most appropriate person to speak to.’”

Hockley said Sport Integrity Australia had no issue with Cricket Australia’s handling of Mitchell’s allegations, and said it was too hard to say whether Mitchell choosing not to contact the game’s integrity unit reflected a trust issue between players and the governing body’s handling of integrity matters.

“They said for the CEO to reach out directly and put the person immediately onto the head of integrity without a minute’s delay was entirely the appropriate way to handle this type of matter,” said Hockley.

“Literally as soon as hearing about this, we knew exactly what to do. Who the right people were to put him in touch with. Hopefully that’s a signal of how seriously we take these types of allegations.”

The captain of the tour, Dean Reynolds, said that he had told the team manager at the time to report the matter.

“I spoke to our team manager at Sydney airport and said to make sure he reported what happened on tour to (the ACB, now CA), but then I flew back to Brisbane and never heard anything of it again,” said Reynolds.

Nick Hockley said he rang Jamie Mitchell 20 minutes after finding out.

Cricket Australia boss Hockley said the organisation was co-operating fully the Australian Federal Police, but was not aware of missing documents.

“I’m not aware of that. Again, what I would say is we’ve done a very thorough search of our archives and we’re absolutely committed to fully supporting the police investigation that’s underway, with provision of whatever information we have access to that would support that investigation,” said Hockley, who said it would be inappropriate to launch a separate review into the tour while the police investigation is ongoing.

Former Test cricketer Gavin Robertson was on the 1980s tour.

An ABC report said that Mitchell’s family felt their son was changed forever when he returned from that tour, and Robertson told Mitchell in a phone conversation a year ago that he remembers a change in his personality from the beginning of the tour to when the team returned.

“I said to Mitch … ‘I remember what you were like at the start. But then I remember it was like you got quieter and I felt a change in who you were,” Robertson told News Corp.

“When Jamie explained his story over the phone, I wasn’t like ‘oh my God,’ I was like, ‘yeah, somehow I could see how that type of thing could occur.”

Hockley said he found it deeply disturbing to read Mitchell’s account, commended him on his bravery in coming forward and said he had no reason not to believe him.

“It’s had a very significant impact on his life and the things people allegedly remember seeing, if true, were totally inappropriate. I’ve got no reason not to believe him and we just want to make sure that Jamie is OK and that we’re supporting as best as we possibly can,” said Hockley.

“We’ve provided access to Jamie to our employee assistance program and we will be reaching out to everyone on the tour to check in and see how they’re going in light of the media reports.

David Richards strongly refuted any suggestion that authorities turned a blind eye.

“Ultimately, you just feel this huge sense that you just desperately want people to come into the game and only have really positive experiences. You just feel very, very sad about it.

“It just emphasises how important all the work we’re doing around keeping our kids safe and safeguarding children … but it was pretty disturbing reading it.

“I really commend Jamie on his bravery and if there’s one message that we can get out it’s … I’d just encourage anyone who has experienced anything that is either abuse, or could be abuse to come forward and we will take those matters very, very seriously. We encourage people to come forward.”

David Richards, chief executive of Cricket Australia during the 1980s, strongly refuted any suggestion that authorities turned a blind eye.

“Had there been any mention of it, we would have dealt with it immediately,” he told News Corp.

“Nothing has been swept under the carpet.”

Former Victorian Cricket Association secretary Ken Jacobs said the claims were also news to him.

“I knew nothing at all about these allegations until I was recently informed about the (media) investigation,’’ Jacobs said.

“It’s extremely concerning for cricket and all sports. No-one came to us.”