More heads could roll at Cricket Australia as cheating scandal grinds on
Pressure is building on Cricket Australia (CA) as the cheating scandal moves into a second week — with suggestions more heads could roll.
It has already claimed the scalps of three Australian players including captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and coach Darren Lehmann — although the coach was cleared of any role in the ball-tampering saga.
The spotlight has turned to the governing body itself in allowing the now heavily-criticised culture of the Australian cricket team to develop to a point that players could no longer tell the difference between pushing the boundaries of a game and premeditated cheating.
Cricket Australia's investigation into the cheating placed the blame entirely on the shoulders of the three players implicated — Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft.
CA says there will be an external review into the culture of the sport but there are concerns that as in previous reviews the actions of the organisation itself will not be sufficiently scrutinised.
Rudd: Peever lacks 'level of delicacy' required
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, now president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, told ABC News from Hong Kong that the scandal was harming Australia's international reputation outside cricket circles.
"People have approached me in the last week in China and in the United States — not known to be big centres of international cricket — but have seen the massive global media coverage of this and have come out with one thing, 'we never thought you Australians cheated at things like this'," Mr Rudd said.
"I think the recent chairmanship of Cricket Australia, under David Peever, opens up a whole series of questions, I mean Peever brought to Australian cricket what I describe as all the delicacy and sophisticated stagecraft of Rio Tinto — I say that with complete irony."
As managing director of Rio Tinto (Australia) Mr Peever played a part in Mr Rudd losing his position as prime minister in 2010 with a sustained attack against the government's Resource Super Profits Tax.
When asked whether he held grievances against Mr Peever, the former prime minister said he "wouldn't know him if I fell over him in the street".
"But when you're dealing with something as precious as an Australian institution, and whether we like it or not Australian cricket is an institution … it requires a level of delicacy I've never seen on the part of David Peever in handling anything," he said.
"It's time for him to step up and own responsibility for what is going on."
PM applies pressure
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull placed a call to Mr Peever early in the week as the drama was unfolding in South Africa and pressed him to take action.
"I've spoken with David Peever, the chairman of Cricket Australia … and I've expressed to him very clearly and unequivocally my disappointment and my concern about the events in South Africa," Mr Turnbull said.
"I think there has to be strongest action taken."
Cricket Australia announced it would initiate an independent review into "the conduct and culture of our Australian men's teams" but there was a sustained call for the review to go to the heart of the organisation itself.
The players operate in a hierarchy overseen by a High Performance Unit that until this week included national coach Darren Lehmann and head of team performance, Pat Howard.
It was Mr Howard and CA's legal counsel and head of integrity, Iain Roy, who cleared Lehmann after they conducted the investigation into the ball-tampering incident.
Initially the coach said he would remain in the post but 24 hours later he quit.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland was criticised for not taking a firmer position at the start of the scandal.
Worse than merely 'disappointing'
Respected cricket broadcaster and writer Mike Coward said the description of the events as "disappointing" underplayed the significance of what had happened.
"It wasn't 'disappointment' it should have been 'outrage', it should have been 'betrayal', it should have been 'appalled', it should have been 'affronted', it should have been so much stronger," Coward said.
"I know there are legal ramifications and he has to be careful as the chief executive.
"It should be pointed out that all the decisions about leadership at the Australian team and penalties have to be taken by the board — and not just by the chief executive."
Recently retired Australian player Ed Cowan said any review needed to look beyond the team itself.
"What we've seen is the middle guy get the guillotine and I think if Cricket Australia is serious and they conduct this culture and behaviour review then they need to be looking at the coach and the high performance manager," Cowan said.
"We need to look at who's in charge and who's setting the culture."
Players take full heat of media spotlight
From the initial press conference in South Africa, given by Smith and Bancroft, to the most recent given by Warner in Sydney on Saturday, the players have fronted up largely on their own.
Cricket Australia, the players association and even the coaching staff were noticeable for their absence as the players took the full heat of the media spotlight.
The only exception was Bancroft's press conference in Perth where the chief executive of WA Cricket, Christina Matthews, sat alongside the player.
Ms Matthews is a former Australian wicket keeper and is the country's most capped female Test player. She has been in charge of the WACA since 2011.
"A culture is everybody's responsibility so if we talk about Australian cricket — it's my responsibility, it's David Peever's responsibility, it's John Warn in NSW's responsibility," she said.
"As the leaders and the CEOs of all of those organisations it's our job to set the standard and to bring our staff and our players on that journey.
"There are times when people get lost in that and you have to reset and get back to what your reference is … I think you're seeing that in Australian cricket, we've got a little bit lost through our team and it's our chance to reset."
'Good people making bad decisions'
The Ethics Centre head Simon Longstaff, who has conducted a number of reviews into Australian sporting organisations, said it was often a case of "essentially good people making bad decisions with sometimes calamitous effects — tragically so as we've seen in this case".
"It's an inability to recognise the small things that start to change the seeds of some deeper corruption of a core set of values and principles … a type of deviance becomes normalised," Dr Longstaff said.
"There's a loss of any internal compass that should guide decision making.
"So the job of those who are responsible for the culture of a team, or for a whole sport, is to ensure firstly that they're very clear about the purpose for which it exists."
The test of Cricket Australia's planned review is to see if the organisation itself meets the same high standards it has now set for its players.
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