To all members of the Cricket Australia Family,
The last six months have been difficult for all of us who love our wonderful game. As chairman of Cricket Australia, I feel your pain, and I would like to apologise sincerely and unreservedly for the distress and dismay you’ve been caused by the mean things people have been saying about me.
I know it must be hard for you to see your leader so unfairly smeared, and from the bottom of my heart I express my regret at my treatment.
At Cricket Australia, we are one hundred percent committed to accountability. It’s that commitment that led us to commission the reviews into the national team’s culture and governance, and it’s that commitment that will lead us to identify and deal with the huge mistakes made by numerous people below me with whom I never had any contact.
Nothing is more important to us than finding those responsible for the position the organisation finds itself in, and I assure you that I will not rest until it is perfectly clear that this does not include me.
A lot has been said and written about the recommendations of the two reviews, and it’s clear that many people have lost confidence in those of us tasked with running Australian cricket. To those people, I would like to direct a personal apology: I am sorry that you are so mistaken about how good we are at our jobs. The incorrect perceptions about the Cricket Australia board, and me in particular, have been a real wake-up call for us all, and we will be ruthless in rooting them out and correcting them.
When I assumed the position of chairman I knew it would not always be easy to make people realise just how competent I am, and I am looking forward to the challenge of doing so.
Obviously, the performance of the Australian men’s cricket team has not been what it could be of late, but we also recognise that cricket is not all about winning and losing. It also involves myriad other crucial elements, such as merchandising, broadcasting rights, and the security of board members’ jobs.
There have definitely been times this year when our players have lost sight of these aspects, and I will be emphasising to the playing group that they need to see the bigger picture in order to avoid a repeat of the events of Cape Town, where Steve Smith, David Warner and Cam Bancroft failed miserably to uphold their duty to their chairman.
Let me be clear: there are serious questions raised by these reviews. Questions like, who the hell do these people think they are? How dare they? Why don’t they shut their damn mouths? And so on. We will be undertaking a thorough process to put measures in place ensuring such questions are never asked again.
In conclusion, Cricket Australia would like to say: we hear you. We know you are concerned about the direction of our beloved sport, and I am confident in saying, on behalf of all at CA, that your concerns are baseless and absurd. Thank you for your continuing support.
Yours,
David Peever
There is I think two words to describe this. Rubbish! is one. The other one is less polite. This did not begin six months ago or even six years. For a decade at least there has been a decline in grass roots cricket. There has been a painfully obvious decline in the technique of our top line batters. There has been a policy that denuded the Sheffield Shield of tough experienced players, resulting in players being unable to make the nest step. Frequently talented young men have been selected and their play has worsened, something that it seems to me began with a national coach who did not have fast bowlers practising their full run or think he needed to worry about technique. I well remember reading the comments of one DK Lillee on that. There has been a policy of making every major wicket as bat friendly as possible with the inevitable result that bowlers cannot get fairly ordinary batters out and our own cannot cope when the track is not flat. The absurdity of shot selection, poor attitude, lack of humility and failure to accept responsibility has been plain to see. Clearly also CA has supported their players at least tacitly. If CA took responsibility the CEO and the HP director who has presided over the antithesis of his title would be long gone. Love the game my arse. I and most of my friends are falling out of love because of the train wreck that CA has supervised. You can spruik about the TV rights and money, but you are at risk of not having a product to sell them at present.
Oh dear, too much haste an cynicism. didn’t look at the byline. Ben has written too close to the truth and I swallowed it hook line, sinker and fisher. Maxima me culpa. Well done Ben, got me.
ogbo, I am pondering the meaning of the “nest step”. Does it have anything to do with magpies strutting our stuff on carefully crafted nests, before we swoop impertinent passers-by, who have no business being within our sphere of influence?
I started reading this thinking it would be satire. Instead we got a true statement from Mr Peever. Thanks
The best commentary I have heard on the problems with cricket admin was Kate Mac Gregor on The Drum the other night. Peever has to go!
As far as I’m concerned, this “winning at all costs” and quest for lowest common denominator bucks, money was never a substitute for heart….. Any wonder bookies got in on the act?
A craven CA has made a cat’s arse of cricket for years. Hilditch (with his “family ties”?) as a selector, let alone chairman? Clarke as captain? How did they think that dynamic would play out? Classic cock-ups ……. -> Clarke’s threat to James Anderson, classy?
And as Ian Chappell said on 7:30, the increase in on-field chatter was always going to get out of step with the spirit of the game and over-step the popping crease. Just what are the “rules” for sledging? We can’t even win that now?
Peever proves Longstaff is correct that ‘culture’ is perpetrated from the top.