As the fall-out of the ball-tampering saga continues, the Australian Cricketers Association has called for a new cricket charter and an independent position of Australian cricket commissioner to be introduced.
The role of commissioner would involve an annual audit of the performance of Australian cricket administration and regular assessment of the culture of the sport, including an ongoing review of the implementation of the Longstaff report's recommendations of how to improve Cricket Australia's crumbling culture, of which 42 were released on Monday.
The ACA said the commissioner would be a "person of significant standing" in the Australian community and would have administrative support. However, just who would fund this role was not divulged. This would fill a similar role to the new cricket ethics commission recommended by Longstaff, which CA has endorsed.
The ACA also wants an annual cricket congress to report on the health of the sport, performance, the relationship between the ACA and CA and the states and CA's finances. This is similar call to Longstaff's Australian Cricket Council, which he says should meet twice yearly.
Australian Cricketers Association president Greg Dyer.Credit:AAP
While the players have introduced their own behavioural pact, declaring "how lucky they are to play this great game" and that they "respect the game and its traditions", they also want a charter to define "winning right" and "spirit of cricket" expectations. This charter would extend to administrators, employees and volunteers at all levels of the sport, with players of the belief it would "demonstrate that winning and playing in the spirit of the game are not mutually exclusive".
ACA president Greg Dyer, the former World-Cup winning wicketkeeper, said the Longstaff report had been damning.
"This report details a corporate culture that is as bad as I have seen in my 30 years in the commercial world," he said.
While unwilling to discuss whether CA chairman David Peever should have retained his role, Dyer said he was concerned about Peever's comments on Monday. Peever's claims that the Longstaff report may not have represented the reality of life at Jolimont had raised eyebrows.
"I have some concerns about some of the rhetoric that was used through the course of yesterday," Dyer said.
The two parties have been urged by Longstaff to reconcile their differences, with an initial meeting ordered for within 30 days. This could include mediation.
"We have been willing to submit ourselves to mediation and to sit with CA for mediation process for a long time now. We have been at the mediation table, if you like, for 18 months. It has been a lonely existence," Dyer said.
"Within 30 days we need to sit down with CA and commence that process and, as we have done, by formal resolution of the ACA, we commit ourselves to that process."
The ACA and CA have had a toxic relationship for more than a year, this intensifying through last year's pay negotiations, but Dyer said there had been a "thawing" in relations.
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