Justin Langer’s former right-hand man Ben Oliver and ex-Olympic rower Drew Ginn will take over Pat Howard’s old role at Cricket Australia before the start of the Ashes.
Cricket Australia (CA) confirmed on Monday morning that the lengthy search for Howard’s replacements was finally over, after the former executive was sacked last November.
Oliver has previously worked with Langer as high-performance manager at the WACA, joining Western Australia just before Langer and helping rebuild them to numerous one-day and Twenty20 titles.
The former Victoria and Tasmania first-class player has also previously been the head of women’s cricket for CA and worked with the International Cricket Council.
He’ll now be responsible for both men’s and women’s national teams, Australia A squads and the selection process of those sides.
“I have devoted most of my adult life to cricket, in both playing and high-performance roles,” Oliver said.
He will start alongside Ginn on July 29, just three days out from the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
Ginn meanwhile is a three-time Olympic gold medallist as a member of the Oarsome Foursome, but has experience in cricket as high performance manager at Tasmania.
He will oversee domestic competitions, youth teams, talent identification, sports science and pathways, including through premier cricket clubs.
CA had confirmed earlier this year to split Howard’s role into two, a move that was supported by the states.
Sacked in the aftermath of last year’s independent review following the ball-tampering scandal, Howard had been a controversial appointment from the beginning.
He stepped in to the newly created role with no cricket experience in 2011, and was a target of significant criticism from former players throughout his tenure.
Former Australia captain Belinda Clark was left to fill in on the interim, overseeing the reintegration of David Warner and Steve Smith as well as the preparations for the World Cup.
She was a popular member in the role and it’s believed there had been push for her to retain it, but she had long made clear she wanted to remain in charge of community cricket.
Spanner
Roar Rookie
Give it time, Sidey ! Snouts in the trough - snort, snort.
Spanner
Roar Rookie
Hi E-Man - not an employee, just a long suffering fan - sigh. They're a hard team to follow.
Spanky
Guest
Here here.
Sideline Eye
Guest
Replace an ex Rugby player with a rower & a mate. Wasn't one of the Marshes available?
E-Meter
Roar Rookie
Ha ha great post. "SACA employee"??
E-Meter
Roar Rookie
Toot toot get on board the gravy train....toot toot
Gee
Roar Rookie
Oh that's nice, a rower and one of Langer's pals get two jobs for a role a lot of cricket people don't even think should exist. CA is really turning into a jobs for mates clone of the AFL.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
The coach is the only 'high performance manager' necessary in sport, all the rest is bureaucratic filling of chairs as Howard proved. Imagine that salary - and his bloated staff wages - going to grassroots cricket to pay for country kids transport to carnivals every year? Sport admin in Australia has lost its way, just another empire building bureaucracy sucking money from supporters and sponsors to control the actual people providing the high performances.
Neel
Roar Guru
Well, it definitely has been a long search for a replacement. If only there was a replacement available for Pat Howard after the 2016 South African series debacle.
Spanner
Roar Rookie
If there is a high performance manager for South Australia, either his job needs to be re-classified to "low performance manager" or he should be sacked.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Those State high performance managers as I understand it answer to the National High performance manager. It was Howard when he had the job now it is Gin. They are all part of the same setup. They should be completely separate and trying to out do one another.
BurgyGreen
Guest
I thought the states did have their own high performance managers. The article mentions that Drew Ginn has experience as Tassie’s high performance manager. The CA role seems to be about the overarching perspective on domestic competitions as a whole rather than managing squads, the detail of which will be left to the states. I think it’s great actually, there’ll be someone from CA thinking full-time about how domestic and club competitions can best benefit state players.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Still not enough, the States should have their own High performance managers. It is diluting improvements driven by competition to have one person oversee all domestic teams.
Paul
Roar Guru
It will be interesting to see what approach these to take to cricket in Australia. At least Pat Howard did one thing right - he's set these blokes a blueprint for what NOT to do!!