Search

show me:

Healy, Qld directors to discuss CA call-up

3 minute read

Queensland Cricket directors, including Ian Healy, will meet soon and discuss Michael Kasprowicz's replacement on Cricket Australia's nine-person board.

KEVIN ROBERTS.
KEVIN ROBERTS. Picture: AAP Image

Ian Healy and fellow Queensland Cricket directors will meet on Tuesday night as the legendary wicketkeeper weighs up an elevation to Cricket Australia's board.

Healy, who played 119 Tests and formerly served as president of the Australian Cricketers' Association, has admitted he is seriously considering a role on CA's board.

It has been a turbulent year for the sport in Australia, headlined by CA's removal of chief executive Kevin Roberts and coronavirus-related job losses.

CA director Michael Kasprowicz resigned in July, creating a vacancy that Queensland Cricket will fill before the national governing body has its AGM on October 29.

Cricket NSW director and former NSW Premier Mike Baird is also set to join CA's board.

Healy, who earlier this year was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), is widely regarded as long-serving director Kasprowicz's likely replacement.

However, there is no guarantee a final decision - from Healy or Queensland Cricket - will come on Tuesday.

"I've just got to find out whether I've got time," Healy said on his SEN morning radio show in Brisbane, one of many commitments the keeper juggles.

"I feel like I'm the most dispensable of three options on our Queensland Cricket board ... we've got another two options there in Chris Simpson and Jon Dooley, but they're pretty busy.

"I'm probably best placed out of us three at the moment, but we'll see how it goes."

The early exit of former Test paceman Kasprowicz, whose term was due to finish next year, left Mel Jones as the only former international player on CA's board.

CA is busily preparing for a summer like no other; hopeful that government quarantine exemptions will be approved soon so revised dates for Australia's four-Test series against India can be announced.

The absence of a signed-off tour schedule for Virat Kohli's side is creating some unease, especially at Channel Seven.

CA remains locked in a tense standoff with its free-to-air broadcaster Seven, whose chief executive James Warburton memorably branded the governing body a "train wreck" in August.

The Australian Chamber for International and Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) is currently reviewing the CA-Seven dispute over a six-year contract worth $450 million.

The stoush could soon be escalated to a courtroom if the deadlock continues.

Seven is unhappy with CA's level of engagement with ACICA, while the governing body remains confident in its legal standing and feels arbitration is not the solution.

CA recently offered Seven a reduction in 2020-21 broadcast fees, having spent several months insisting there will be no discount.

Think. Is this a bet you really want to place?

For free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit www.gamblinghelponline.org.au