Who are Australia’s worst administrators?

The past few years have shown us that we have some of the most dysfunctional sports administrators in the world.

There are four contenders for the worst sporting administrators in the country. They are FFA for football, the NRL, the AOC and Cricket Australia.

The winner (or loser) is obvious – Cricket Australia wins by the length of the straight

The reasons for my decision are based on four huge missteps.

1. The pay dispute
This took place several years ago when the players wanted to negotiate the terms of their next payment agreement.

Cricket Australia approached the players representatives in a belligerent obdurate way. In the past there had been some vestige of goodwill and plenty of money so the discussions were quite amicable.

This time it seemed like Cricket Australia wanted to teach the players a lesson and sent their most aggressive negotiator Kevin Roberts to hardball the talks.

The dreaded word ‘strike’ appeared and the atmosphere became increasingly frosty. At almost the last moment Cricket Australia sent in their CEO James Sutherland, who had been strangely absent until then.

Two days later Sutherland gave in and tried to convince an incredulous media that Cricket Australia really had won. What a fiasco! Bitterness between the parties still remains after the settlement.

Score for CA 3 out of 10

2. Response to the ball tampering farce in South Africa
Cameron Bancroft did his best ‘Inspector Clouseau’ impression pretending that he did not have sandpaper in his trousers and he had not rubbed the said sandpaper on the ball.

The umpires were not so easily fooled and reported the offence. Steve Smith and David Warner fessed up and said it was all their fault and Cameron was just the poor schnook who did the dreaded deed.

The Australian public went berserk and for a few moments we were almost concerned about a lynch mob. Cricket Australia commissioned a report from their integrity officer and the three players were sent home in disgrace.

So far CA had done nothing wrong. But wait a minute – what they did next was a huge dose of overkill.

The banned Bancroft for nine months, Smith for 12 months and Warner for the same period. This is despite the fact that the ICC deemed the offence worth no more than a maximum of five games.

Cricket Australia however deemed it a hanging offence and threw the book at them. Forget precedent, forget natural justice just ban them. Of course they did not appeal, as was their right, because they wanted to play again for Australia. They retreated wounded into the shadows.

Score for CA 2 out of 10

Peever fell on his sword. (Photo: William West/AFP)

3. Whack: The Longstaff Report strikes
To deflect any possible negative reaction to CA’s treatment of the whole issue they decided to commission a report into the culture of Australian Cricket. They did not anticipate that Professor Longstaff would lay every possible problem with cricket at the feet of Cricket Australia.

42 recommendations; accusations of bullying and arrogance followed. The whole organisation was rubbished and pilloried. So what happened? Mea Culpa, Sorry! No way!

The CA chairman who had seen the report before the public had turned up on Monday at a press conference and said words to the effect I am not embarrassed. We will fix it up. I am going nowhere.

Score for CA 1 out of 10

4. Shock: The Peever Coup d’Etat
On the Thursday of that week, Mr Peever resigned as chairman. What the? Apparently he deemed he had lost support and fell on his sword. Cricket Australia was now officially in chaos.

Score for CA 0 out of 10

What next? Will the polished poker pro Shane Warne become the only chairman to be a cricket commentator? I don’t think so, but you never know.