Cricket Australia have appointed former Australian rugby union international Pat Howard as general manager, team performance.
The creation of the role follows the release of the Argus review earlier this year that recommended a restructure, which included a GM role.
Howard, 37, will play a key part in the choice of the national team’s new head coach, to replace Tim Nielsen after last summer’s Ashes defeat.
After playing 20 Tests for the Wallabies, Howard also served as Australian Rugby Union’s high-performance manager.
The Australian team head coach, captain, chairman of selectors, team manager and centre of excellence manager will report to Howard, who will be based at the Centre of Excellence, in Brisbane, and start in mid-November.
CA chief executive James Sutherland said Howard’s high performance background in sport was a key to his appointment.
“He has a background of success as a player, selector and coach, including 20 Tests as an Australian player, as well as playing and coaching success with the Leicester Tigers in England and was a high performance GM with the ARU,” Sutherland said.
“He brings vital qualities, in what is a pivotal new role, with a singular focus on Australian team performance.
“His priority will be ensuring that all of Australia’s high performance cricket programs dovetail in a manner that helps us produce the best men’s and women’s teams in the world.”
Sutherland said CA had strongly reported the Argus review’s recommendation that the new role focus purely on team performance.
Other operational requirements, such as competition management, umpiring, programming, anti-corruption, security, team logistics and budget management will remain the responsibility of general manager of operations Michael Brown.
Howard said the timing of the creation of the position, stemming from the review, made it exciting.
“It is a great opportunity for anybody interested in sports leadership,” he said.
Sutherland said CA would quickly move to finalise recruitment of a full-time national selector and other selectors, positions which have attracted strong interest, and to recruit a head coach.
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