New Cricket Australia chairman backs reform of the game

Melbourne, (ANI): Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards marked his first public speech by saying that he was all for reforming the existing cricket system in Australia, and added that he would be happy to step aside if a better system came along.

“Maybe our governance review, it’s getting close, might even see me the shortest-serving chairman in Cricket Australia’s history. But if we end up with a better system, that will not worry me at all,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Edwards, as saying on Friday.

Edwards was addressing guests at an Australian Cricket Society lunch, where he indicated that he did not believe that the game was in crisis.

He said CA would appoint a new national coach within the next week or two, who’ll also be a selector alongside new panel members Andy Bichel, Rod Marsh, chairman John Inverarity and Test skipper Michael Clarke.

The governance review headed by David Crawford and Colin Carter is expected to call for the states to hand over power to a more independent commission.

Crawford oversaw the 1992 report that led to the current structure of the AFL Commission and Carter is a former AFL commissioner.

“Since I’ve been on the board, we’ve had three attempts to look at our governance and none of them has got this far. We have too many people on the board. I don’t think Cricket Australia needs 14 directors. To be on the board, you have to be on a state board,” Edwards said.

He added: “So I think we have to change. It’s a matter now of getting that process underway, which we will at our next board meeting, I expect.”

The West Australian told the largely elderly audience he had been in total agreement with them that Twenty20 cricket was “Mickey Mouse.”

However the 61-year-old changed his tune after attending a Champions League game last month in Chennai where NSW batsman David Warner put on a switch-hitting clinic with an unbeaten 135 from 69 balls. “I must say I’m not a huge fan of it either,” Edwards said of T20 cricket. “Although I can see where it sits.

Edwards said T20 would eventually lead to more innovations in the five-day game.