Cricket Australia set to announce new chief executive

The new chief executive to replace James Sutherland will be made known on Wednesday and there’s strong speculation as to who it will be.

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland (L) listens to Cricket Australia chairman David Peever (R) during a press conference in Melbourne on June 6, 2018, where Sutherland announced he will stand down in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal that rattled the game. Sutherland, who has been chief executive for 17 of his 20 years with Cricket Australia, has given 12 months' notice and will continue in his role until a suitable replacement is found. / AFP PHOTO / William WEST

Speculation and a degree of anxiety surrounds this week’s announcement of the first new chief executive at Cricket Australia since James Sutherland took the role in 2001.

It is a critical time in the organisation’s history with a cultural review — which is expected to focus on the roles of several senior administrators — due this month.

The review was sparked following the disastrous South African ball-tampering scandal, but the new CEO also comes into the job with the board rocked by the recent departure of director Bob Every, who launched a scathing attack on chairman David Peever on his way out.

Sutherland, who has overseen an extraordinary growth in revenue, Test, Big Bash and women’s cricket, announced mid-year that he would be leaving the job and gave 12 months notice.

The Australian revealed yesterday that his replacement will be announced on Wednesday or possibly sooner.

A search for a successor began with chairman David Peever claiming the organisation would look globally, but stating he preferred an internal candidate.

In recent times the list reduced to four known potential successors: Kevin Roberts, John Harnden, Christina Matthews and John Warn.

There is feverish speculation within and outside Cricket Australia that Roberts, Cricket Australia’s chief operating officer, has secured the job, but this has not been confirmed.

The Australian revealed last month that Matthews, the highly respected chief executive at the Western Australian Cricket Association, was cut from the short list after an interview with the board because of her lack of experience running a big business.

Roberts has had senior roles at a number of outside organisations including adidas and 2XU, however it was the role he played during last year’s cricket pay dispute that makes his potential appointment controversial.

The former first-class cricketer had been on the CA board but stepped down to take over as executive general manager for strategy, people and culture in 2015 before later becoming chief operating officer.

Roberts flew back from holidays this week while another strong candidate, former Cricket NSW chairman Warn, left for a family holiday on the weekend.

The possibility that there is a dark horse who will play Scott Morrison to Roberts’s Peter Dutton in the spill cannot be ruled out.

Harnden is a director at Cricket Australia and has experience running the Melbourne Grand Prix, Commonwealth Games and the successful 2015 World Cup.

CA has had a tumultuous two years the likes of which the organisation has never known. Its strongarm tactics during the bitter pay dispute saw the players off contract and an overseas tour cancelled.

Roberts ran the negotiations at the behest of former mining executive Peever.

It was Roberts, however, who was the public face of the push and whose handling of the negotiations upset players, state administrators and other stakeholders in the game.

Chief Operating Officer at Cricket Australia Kevin Roberts.

Former captain Mark Taylor, who is a director at Cricket Australia, said recently that the first tasks for whoever replaced Sutherland would be rebuilding these relationships after the board backed down from its demands to change the revenue share model.

The ball-tampering scandal was the darkest period in the local game’s history and resulted in two reviews.

The cultural review into what led to the captain, vice-captain and an opener being suspended and the coach resigning is expected to make life uncomfortable for Pat Howard who is one of the most senior executives in the organisation. The review is due to be released this month.

The Australian revealed last month that respected director Bob Every had quit the board after a major falling out with Peever.

In an email to other directors Every attacked Peever for his governance during the pay dispute and broadcast negotiations.

Every said he could not back the decision for Peever’s term to be extended by another three years, but the board voted in favour of the chairman. That decision has to be ratified by the states at an AGM this month.

While CA said it would do a global search to replace Sutherland, Peever said at the time that he would favour an internal candidate.

“This is an incredibly complex job, it has many dimensions,” Peever said. “What we must do is find the best person for the role. While I don’t want to put any constraints around it, it is a Cricket Australia role, so we’re probably going to have a little bit of bias towards an Australian, and it is a role in cricket, so we’ll probably have a bias towards someone in cricket.”