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Wallabies captain George Gregan (right) joins Prime Minister John Howard on his early morning walk in Canberra, Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006. The Wallabies will play the All Blacks in new Zealand on Saturday in the Tri - Nations Cup. AAP Image/Alan Porritt
It’s the turn of Australia and New Zealand to put forward their candidate to become chairman of the International Cricket Council in 2012. According to The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald, the candidate, who is assured of the appointment, will be John Howard, the former long-serving Prime Minister of Australia.
When Howard was approached by reporters for a comment on the rumour, he gave a politician’s ‘no comment’ response.
Cricket Australia has confirmed that a candidate has been selected, but its spokesman refused to say whether this candidate is Howard. The SMH was told: “We do have a preferred candidate. He is dedicated to cricket and willing for his name to go forward.”
Peter Roebuck, in a robust column in the SMH, has presumed that the preferred candidate is the former Prime Minister. He gives Howard a terrible verbal mauling, the sort of onslaught that Howard’s pitiful off-spinners would receive from anyone capable of lifting a bat in anger.
John Howard, according to Roebuck, is not qualified for the job, ”plain and simple.”
Howard’s knowledge of cricket is “more characterised by enthusiasm than depth or imagination.” He is “an aged and conservative white politician with scant knowledge of the intricacies of the game.”
Roebuck clearly believes that Howard is not up to coping with the politics of cricket, especially the power plays that have been launched by the Indian cricket authorities who are seemingly intoxicated with the economic power they wield in world cricket.
This is a strange argument to make against a man believed by many to be the most consummate Australian politician (in getting his way and manipulating people to do what he wants) since Sir Robert Menzies, another cricket tragic.
I wonder if Roebuck would have made this argument if someone like Bob Hawke (too old now, of course) had been put forward for consideration. My guess is that Roebuck would have approved of that appointment.
Roebuck also argues that Howard has been put up to “to counter the all-consuming and much resented power of the Indians.”
I believe the opposite is true.
Howard is the choice of Cricket Australia – and apparently foisted on Cricket New Zealand – because he will go along with the Indian power brokers.
A source in New Zealand told me that Cricket Australia is determined to stay as close as possible to the Indian power brokers because Indian cricket is an Aladdin’s treasure trove for the Australian game.
Howard, the consummate politician, can be expected to ease Indian concerns about anti-Indian behaviour in Australia, and Australian concerns about anti-Australian behaviour in India. The art of the politician, and Howard was one of the best, is to pour soothing and unctuous words on troubled situations.
The alternative to Howard, New Zealand’s Sir John Anderson, has been known to be quite forthright about some of the unsavoury behaviour of leading Indian cricket officials.
Sir John is Roebuck’s and New Zealand nominee for the job.
He would be the ideal appointment. Those of us of a certain age remember him as a big-bummed fast bowler and fearsome hitter in Wellington first grade cricket. He had a distinguished career as a banker, being chief executive of the ANZ National Bank.
He has any number of board positions now, including the board of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, chairman of Television NZ and secretary of the NZ Cricket Foundation.
Sir John, I’ve been told, has had an operation to help a bad back and the suggestion is that he might not want a job that entails numerous long distance air flights.
But he has been New Zealand’s nominee, and in the best of all worlds, is the man for the job.
But having said that, if John Howard is the choice of the Australian and New Zealand cricket authorities, then he should be supported.
I can’t see how someone who has successfully navigated the shark-infested waters of Australian politics won’t be in his element in the equally dangerous and murky waters of international cricket politics.