Under-fire Cricket Australia chairman David Peever is facing more criticism after describing the ball-tampering fiasco in South Africa as a "hiccup" in an interview on Monday night.
Peever has been busy defending himself and the board after a damning report into the culture of the organisation was released on Monday.
In an interview with Leigh Sales on 7:30, Peever repeatedly dodged questions on whether he or the board should resign over the culture that lead to the ball-tampering scandal.
"We have had a hiccup in South Africa and we’re taking the opportunity to learn the lessons of that so we can make the game even stronger," Peever told Sales on Monday.
Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft faced hefty penalties after the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa earlier this year. Smith and Warner were both banned from playing for Australia and in the Big Bash League and Sheffield Shield for a year, while Bancroft was suspended for nine months.
The incident was the catalyst for a review of the culture of cricket in Australia and on Monday Sydney firm the Ethics Centre handed down their damning 145-page report.
While the report was critical of the "gilded bubble" the elite players lived in, it was particularly damning of the board of Cricket Australia (CA).
"The leadership of CA should also accept responsibility for its inadvertent (but foreseeable) failure to create and support a culture in which the will-to-win was balanced by an equal commitment to moral courage and ethical restraint," the review said.
"While good intentions might reduce culpability – they do not lessen responsibility … especially not for those who voluntarily take on the mantle of leadership."
In Monday night's interview, Sales asked Peever whether the board had accepted any responsibility for the scandal.
"How can the very same people who presided over the flourishing of this toxic culture now be the ones to change it, particularly, as the report explains, you’re the only people who couldn’t identify the problems?" Sales asked.
Peever responded by saying, "cultural change comes about by understanding where some of the gaps are".
Sales asked again: "Where’s the accountability at the leadership level?"
Peever replied: "As chairman of the board and on behalf of the board, we accept our share of accountability for what happened in South Africa.
"Had we not accepted that accountability we would not have instituted and commissioned an independent review, and indeed would not be publishing the report in full which we’re doing in the interests of complete transparency and in the better interests of the game."
The CA chairman also said he did not want to "dwell on the negatives" of the report.
"This is a very important day for cricket and we are moving forward from here," he said.
Sales also asked the CA chairman why he thought he was the best person to continue leading the organisation.
Cricket Australia chairman David Peever said the ball tampering scandal was a ‘hiccup’.Credit:Justin McManus
"It's a great privilege to be involved in cricket," Peever said.
"Cricket is in a very good place in this country by almost any measure … the game is in a very strong place."
His remarks drew ire from commentators on Twitter.
Peever also told Sales the penalties given to Smith, Warner and Bancroft would not be reduced on the back of the report as they were put in place after a full review.
"The suspensions will stand," he said.
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