Cricket Australia Board endorses governance reform
Cricket Australia's Board has today supported proposed changes to its structure, including moving from 14 state nominees as directors to a board of nine non-executive directors who do not hold positions with State Associations or any of their entities.
CA Directors today also agreed that each of the six State Associations should be recognised as equal shareholders in CA, moving away from the historic structure that gave different states either three, two or one vote each.
CA Chairman Wally Edwards has today written to CA's six State Association members seeking their support for changes to CA's structure that could be put to a members' meeting early in the new year.
Under CA's Constitution, the six State Associations determine CA's governance and decide on any changes to its constitution.
Eminent governance experts David Crawford and Colin Carter noted their national consultation showed a strong, but not unanimous, mood for change throughout Australian cricket.
They recommended replacing the current 14-member board with a board of no more than nine non-executive directors with a mix of relevant skills and experience appropriate to Australian cricket's complex, challenging and high-stakes environment. They also suggested CA's Chief Executive Officer be an executive director on the Board.
CA's Board voted today to send the report to State Associations along with CA's responses to its recommendations, and to publish the report in full. CA's responses include that there should be at least one director resident in each state. (CA Board resolution below)
An already-scheduled CA Board meeting on 27 February will consider any constitutional amendments arising from the collective State Associations' response to today's governance review report and put that amendment to a specially-convened meeting of CA members as soon as possible after that.
Crawford and Carter made 17 recommendations for governance change after being asked to review Australian cricket governance to "ensure Australian cricket and in particular Cricket Australia and its constituent State members have a governance structure to create an environment for correct and efficient decision making so that Australian cricket maximises its ability to administer the game of cricket in the best interest of all its stakeholders".
Their recommendations included that state cricket associations be acknowledged as the shareholders of CA, responsible for the appointment of CA Directors and with the right to dismiss any, or all, CA directors.
CA Chairman Wally Edwards said Crawford and Carter had undertaken a comprehensive and exhaustive review which had involved detailed talks with a wide range of nearly 100 cricket stakeholders throughout Australia.
"Australian cricket owes them a vote of sincere thanks for the significant workload they have undertaken and for the detailed, world's-best-practice assessment they have made about what they believe we need to do if cricket is to continue to be Australia's favourite sport," he said.
"There is some public misunderstanding about Australian cricket governance ? it is not a matter for the CA Board's unilateral decision, it is a matter for the State Associations that collectively set up CA to decide and we look forward to their consideration to the CA Board's recommendations about the report".