As one state-based cricket official quipped during a turbulent week: who would know there is a one-day series against South Africa beginning in Perth on Sunday, let alone who was in the Australian team.
It's been a dark week for Australian cricket but a necessary one. The Longstaff report examining the culture of Cricket Australia, conducted by Dr Simon Longstaff of The Ethics Centre, was always going to make for uncomfortable reading. When it emerged there had been a culture of arrogance and controlling, of bullying, of little consequences for a "winning-without-counting-the-costs" mentality, it became one of the most tumultuous weeks our summer sport has endured.
The departure of Cricket Australia chairman David Peever allows the healing process to begin.Credit:Justin McManus
David Peever did not help by insisting he remain as chairman to guide CA through confronting waters, for a new chief executive, coach and captain, and a soon-to-be high-performance boss, meant it was logical he be replaced, having overseen two years of tumult. That his exit came to a head on Thursday now allows for the healing process to begin, for a change in ethos from the one which led to the crisis-inducing events of Cape Town and last year's ugly pay war which drove a wedge through relations between players and those at the sport's Jolimont headquarters.
It's been an unsettling period, made all the more destabilising by a weakened national team losing a one-day series in England, and Test and Twenty20 campaigns against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. As interim CA chairman Earl Eddings noted, CA needs to regain the public's confidence – and this will be done in a number of ways.
A winning team would help but, heading into the three-match series against the Proteas, and having won only two of its past 20 one-day internationals, it's debatable if this Australian side can do just that. This should be a time when plans for next year's World Cup defence are stabilising, but that cannot happen until the suspensions of Steve Smith and David Warner end in March and a call is made on whether they take part in cricket's marquee event in England. Will both be wanted? That will take time to play out.
Steve Smith (left) and David Warner’s suspensions end in MarchCredit:AAP
In the meantime, as batsman Chris Lynn pointed out, there is a home summer to negotiate, initially against the Proteas and then against India through four Tests.
"We want to win this series and build a nice core group going into that World Cup but there is so many opportunities for players to score runs," he said.
"If we just focus on the World Cup, we're going to miss all these games – this week, next week. We need to make sure we nail the process, and not worry about the outcome all the time.
"At the end of the day, if we don't perform over the next couple of weeks, then this team won't be at the World Cup – it'll be a fresh team. So we've got to play what's in front of us."
One state official suggested the results in the one-day series were irrelevant. Rather, it was more about how the team conducted itself and the fight it showed at a time when it could easily be distracted by recent off-field events. The team's new behavioural pact, introduced as part of a team review conducted by former Test batsman Rick McCosker, will also be tested, for the Proteas – as was reaffirmed in South Africa in March – have never been short of a word on the field, while India boasts one of the sport's great protagonists, Virat Kohli.
Smith and Kohli clashed during last year's heated series in India but Smith, of course, will be absent this time.
India’s Virat Kohli, one of cricket’s great protagonists.Credit:AP
The Australians were a more sedate outfit against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates but the pressure and focus rises in home summers. Will their declaration that "we respect the game and its traditions" and a call for fans to "smile with us" stand up on those long, hot afternoons when nothing goes right?
Coach Justin Langer is determined his team will set the right example.
"There's no point winning and behaving poorly. I don't think Australians respect that. We can play hard as long as we win fair," he said.
Australian cricket coach Justin Langer: “We can play hard as long as we win fair.”Credit:AAP
However, Test great Shane Warne does not want this to mean players will act in a robot-style manner.
"We like to see characters, we like to see people say how they feel. We want to see them play with emotion and passion," he said.
While Langer, who has admitted to sleepless nights because of his team's poor form, will work as hard on his players' skills as he has does behavioural expectations in this post-Longstaff era, for Longstaff has recommended a greater emphasis on selections being based on character, off the field it's up to Eddings, a candidate to take on the role permanently, and new chief executive Kevin Roberts to lead a fresh approach in the way the executive and board deals with all parties associated with the sport.
Roberts was in charge of people and culture when he joined the CA executive in 2015 but has taken responsibility for failings in the governing body's culture in wake of the report.
One former senior Cricket Australia employee said CA had lost sight of what its role was.
"When you read that report, not every executive and board member did the survey, which is an issue itself. Why did they have a higher opinion of how the organisation was tracking than anyone else?" he said.
"The other thing to come out of the report was perspective, humility and making sure we remember why we exist and what is the role here. What are we trying to do? There are elements of the business that have lost sight of that. Not all elements can be run like a business. Some elements need to be run as a sport and realise we are not dealing with stakeholders and customers and shareholders, we are dealing with people and volunteers and things that can't be measured.
"Here we are with a non-profit organisation but sometimes the easiest KPI to hit is a measurable dollar figure or participation or a bank account number, rather than how do you put a value on people's love for the game and its rightful place in our heritage and culture and who we are and define what makes up Australia."
The Longstaff report opens with the line: "Cricket is one of the most unforgiving sports in the world". While the comment was about how "one error by a batsman or batswoman is all that it takes – and you are out", the same could be said about decisions – and their ramifications – off the field.
It's forgiveness – and healing – that many in the sport are now looking for. Just how long that takes is one of the major questions heading into the new international summer.
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