The Cricket Australia has seen a massive restructuring in the wake of the Longstaff review which exposed the failings of the Australian cricket board, especially after the ball-tampering scandal that rocked their system.
Now former Australia captain and 2015 World cup winner Michael Clarke has come out and said that “structure changed under my captaincy”. He was in conversation with The Cricket Show. Considered the successor of Ricky Ponting since his Test debut against India in 2004, Clarke led the Aussies through a rebuilding period winning 24 out of a possible 47 Tests as captain.
“I think the structure changed under my captaincy and I found that very difficult to deal with,” Clarke said.
He further said, “When I took over the captaincy, my communications were very direct to the CEO James Sutherland, we had a great relationship that allowed us two to communicate. If I had a question about what Cricket Australia was doing, what decisions were getting made, I could go directly to James and James was the same – if there was something he didn’t see was what he wanted with the team or asked me why a decision was made with the team – he would pick up the phone and call me.”
Clarke elaborated, “Halfway through my captaincy or the last couple of years my captaincy that changed. The head coach became a lot more prominent, a High-Performance Manager had a much bigger role, the Chairman of selectors had a much bigger role and then there was James Sutherland. It certainly was nowhere near as clear and direct at the end of my captaincy as it was at the start. I don’t believe the current structure is the right structure for the game of cricket.”
However the recent changes have seen CEO James Sutherland retiring, Chairman David Peever resigning, Board Director Mark Taylor stepping down and Executives Pat Howard and Ben Amarfio axed all in the space of fewer than eight months after the sandpaper gate scandal.
Clarke had a few suggestions for the Cricket Australia and said “I would love to see Australian players and state players have to play club cricket. If you’re free on a Saturday then you have to go play club cricket – I don’t care what state you’re from – and the same for Shield cricket – get back.”
However, Clarke also had his doubts, “I know it’s all about money, Cricket Australia are not going to move International games around to allow Australian players to go play Shield cricket because it’s going to hit them financially. But our game has to be bigger than more than one level, there’s such a big gap.”
(Inputs: 3aw.com.au)
