There was something underwhelming about the announcement of Pat Howard as the much anticipated GM Team Performance at Cricket Australia last week.
While the media coverage has been courteous, only Chloe Saltau of Fairfax found some excitement in Cricket Australia’s decision, in that it chose to go outside the cricket world.
The appointment was the first since the presentation of the Argus Review and for this reason it would symbolise just how conscientiously Cricket Australia wanted to execute the Argus recommendations, and how desperately it wanted to win back cricket’s number one ranking.
There were no known salary limits, no lack of authority from the board to go and get the very best person in the world and no shortage of appetite among the state cricket team set ups for getting a world class performance manager who would use their experience, power and presence to carve out a pathway to world cricket leadership.
Various names were talked about in the media and Ric Charlesworth quickly became a kind of benchmark candidate. He’d written the book, had experience all over the world, knew how to command a disparate body and had a depth and length of experience in cricket and international sport generally that represented the ideal career foundation to rebuild high performance cricket in Australia.
The world was Cricket Australia’s oyster and they had authority to get the very best person for the job, wherever they came from.
The successful candidate Pat Howard has just 10 months experience as the High Performance Manager of Australian Rugby. It was cut short when he discovered that the travel demands of the role clashed with having a young family.
If he believes that in this short time he made an impact then he is partly responsible for Australia’s performance at the 2011 Rugby World Cup. If he doesn’t believe that he contributed during his 10 month stint, then his high performance experience is insufficient to warrant his candidacy for the Cricket Australia role.
As Pat chuckled through his first cricket media conference, it was evident he did not appreciate the magnitude or the expectations of the job he had just landed. His relaxed jokes about his mates wanting a say in selections portrayed a comfortable rugby old boy’s attitude when Australian cricket is in critical condition.
His coaching role at the Leicester Tigers was club rugby, not international rugby. His coaching success was domestic, not European.
Pat’s business experience is as Chief Operating Officer of a property trust. Property trusts buy, sell and sometimes refurbish properties. They don’t deal in high performance teams, they deal in properties.
So how did this happen? How, in Cricket Australia’s darkest hour did they conclude that the very best candidate in the world for this mission critical role, was a 37 year old former rugby player, coincidentally based in Brisbane?
Was Pat Howard the preferred candidate? Or did other preferred candidates reject the job offer?
If so, why did the preferred candidate refuse the offer? What could Cricket Australia have done to overcome that candidate’s reluctance?
A recurring theme in the Argus review was “accountability” but it doesn’t stop with Team performance. Cricket Australia will be judged on its execution of the Argus review and its first step was underwhelming.
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