Should David Peever have resigned?

You might be right. Now that they are cleaned house the new person might come in and overturn the ban. Peever and co couldn't overturn it without losing face. Australia won't like losing 4-0 to India, so it'll be very tempting to over turn it.

No doubt. Our unique culture has changed for the worse in recent years. But by any standard we are one of the least corrupt societies in the world.

Yeah, for any sort of coaching type position to work, the players under that person need to respect them and believe they really know what they are talking about and are worth listening to. If you don't have that, then even if they have some valid input at times it's likely not to be listened to. Having someone with a completely non-cricketing background in a position like that is crazy.

Nope, not a FACT

"We’re one of the least corrupt nations on Earth..." But like our cricket rankings, we're on the slide. According to Transparency International, our score has dropped from 85 in 2012 to 77 in 2017 and our ranking from 7th to 13th. https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017#table

We have higher standards in this country. The match fixing in Pakistan, the grafting in India, the ball tampering in England, New Zealand, India and South Africa, etc. Those cricket boards might slap players and officials on the wrist. That's fine. They can do that. But this is Australia and most people here are brought up with a moral and ethical standard where such acts and behaviour is unacceptable. We're one of the least corrupt nations on Earth (there is still corruption of course just look at how Peever, the AFL conduct themselves). But we won't tolerate it.

Peever was corrupt. It's like he was rubbing the re-appointment in everyone's face by releasing the report a day after he was re-elected. The whole handling of the pay dispute was a disaster. He came at it with the mentality of a mining executive. He forgot that the players are the product. In that press conference after the release of the report, basically absolved himself of any responsibility in allowing cricket in Australia to reach a point where players and a coach thought rubbing sand paper on a ball was a good idea. You can't have someone like that leading an organisation. He was corrupt, unaccountable and on bad terms with the players.

No certainly not the only one! But he is the Chairman of the national governing body who described the ball tampering incident a just hiccup... If that doesn't show out of touch he has been...

As for your theories on ball tampering. Frankly irrelevant and pathetic. What Bancroft, Warner & Smith did was disgusting and outside the rules of the game and the FACT is they got off lightly. They are cheats and they're lucky they didn't get banned for 2 years - so as to miss the Ashes and World Cup. What Pakistan did to Shahid Afridi or South Africa did to Faf is irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. Why do we care what Pakistanis or South Africans do? Answer. We don't. It has no bearing and is best ignored. We are Australian and need to hold our players to a high standard not slump and stoop to the standards of others. What a pathetic attitude.

Kersi, I should have added, it was highly naive & inappropriate for Peever to describe what happened in Cape Town as a "hiccup". It was much more than a hiccup. This demonstrated incredibly poor judgement on Peever's part, & based on this one word alone, showed he wasn't to the job of holding the position of CA chairman.

Kersi, there have been two "eras" in my lifetime watching Test cricket; the first was the great West Indian sides of the 80's & 90's then the great Australian sides of the 90's and 2000's. When these teams were on the rise and at their peak, they both played hard but generally fair cricket. Sledging occurred but given the quality of these teams, it was pretty much one way traffic. It was only when these sides started to slide through player retirements, that older players and those coming into the teams sought out ways to maintain an edge. In Australia, I think this started around the time of Clarke's captaincy when you had a real changing of the guard ( in comes Johnson and Warner, etc, out goes Hussey, Katich and co). About then, Sutherland took charge of CA and his and the Boards focus since then has been to manage the business of making as much money as possible. They've let a lot of things slide in the name of keeping Australia on top of the cricket pile and it's only now they've been held to account. Should all Boards be asked to resign? CA held a review and it was clear from that, significant change was needed, not only to player attitudes but to the drivers of these attitudes, ie coaches, administrators, etc. It would be wise for all Boards to hold a similar independent review every 5 - 8 years to ensure similar bad practices don't become embedded in a nations approach to the game. If those reviews find the Board has played a part, then Yes, the Board should be changed.

Hi Kersi, I trust you are well. When I have made exactly the same comment as you regarding the severity of the penalties on Smith, Warner & Bancroft, some people have replied that it had nothing to do with ball tampering. The argument is they brought the game into disrepute with their initial contrived & complicated explanations of their actions, which were deemed at worst less than honest, or at best misleading. As for Peever, he should never have sought, or been allowed, to be sworn in again as chairman while the contents of the review were unknown. Very messy all around. I think it only fair, all the main administrators, as well as the players, ought to be punished by losing their positions. They are all culpable, even if some are less culpable than others. The only one to get away cleanly is Sutherland, which is a shame. Because he is also answerable for the poor culture that has developed throughout Australian cricket.

Yes

Maybe not but he was the Chairman and as the saying goes, the buck stops at the top.

It was worse in the old days when players used Brylcream and other hair oils. Some old photos of Miller andf Truman running theiir fingers through ntheir hair. Not acceptable but this was hard to combat then.

I'd suggest it was about the time Pat Howard was appointed. Can you imagine what Australia's elite cricketers felt about having their training, their game and their world dictated to by an outsider who has no idea about cricket? Ever since then, we have had cricketers sit out masses of games during the cricket season in order to prepare for games during the cricket season. Go figure. We he came, natural cricket ceased.

Interesting take Kersi. Should the person at the top take responsibility? I do believe so. Teachers do drive classroom culture and when they don’t pick up on or clamp down on bad behaviour/cheating for years, and an outside inspector call it out, the teacher must go. Will they get Smith and Warner to return early? I don’t know but it would be a knock on the credibility of the country if they did, much as cricket needs a phenomenon like Smith.

Faf came out after the whole sandpaper scandal and did talk about needing things made a lot more clear about what is and isn't acceptable. Because, while sandpaper clearly crossed any line, the line itself is still quite foggy. The fact that you basically have to be working hard on the ball, shining it, trying to get one side shiny while the other degrades to have any chance in cricket, mean players are always doing everything they can. What is and isn't acceptable? Is it okay for a player to smear on the sunscreen extra thick and not really rub it in that well, so when they wipe some "sweat" off their neck to shine the ball it comes with a nice dose of sunscreen? I'm sure there are players who use hair product that they can wipe out of their hair onto the ball. And players are always going to try and find ways of getting one side of the ball to make contact with surfaces that will help scuff it up more. Technically, all this sort of stuff is probably against the letter of the law, but I suspect every bit of it goes on in every single game of cricket that gets played.