Australian Cricket Board

Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Cricket'. It is incorporated as an Australian Public Company, limited by guarantee.

Cricket Australia operates all of the Australian national representative cricket sides, including the Men's, the Women's and Youth sides. CA is also responsible for organising and hosting Test tours and one day internationals with other nations, and scheduling the home international fixtures.

Background

Cricket Australia is an administrative organisation responsible for cricket in Australia. Cricket Australia has six member organisations that represent each of the Australian states. These organisations are:

* New South Wales – Cricket NSW
* Queensland – Queensland Cricket
* South Australia – South Australian Cricket Association
* Tasmania – Cricket Tasmania
* Victoria – Cricket Victoria
* Western Australia – Western Australian Cricket

Cricket ACT and Northern Territory Cricket are non-member associations, although the ACT participates in Cricket Australia tournaments such as the Women's National Cricket League and the Futures League, and previously briefly also competed in the domestic limited-overs competition.

Cricket Australia is governed by eight independent directors, who work collectively in the national interest of Australian cricket. The chief executive officer reports to the board of directors.

Each of the state cricket associations that are members of Cricket Australia also selects a representative side to participate in Australia's major domestic cricket tournaments.

Domestic teams, playing national tournaments

Cricket Australia also maintains a healthy but independent association with the Australian Cricketers' Association to provide proper player's rights and welfare requirements.

History

The first centralised authority for the administration of cricket in Australia was established in 1892 when representatives from the state associations of New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria came together to establish the Australasian Cricket Council. However the Australasian Cricket Council was disbanded in 1898, and what is now known as Cricket Australia was established in 1905 as the "Australian Board of Control for International Cricket".Pollard, p. 57. Before its establishment, tours by Australian teams to England were organised and funded by private groups or by the players themselves. Similarly, invitations to English teams were made by private promoters or by individual clubs, such as the Melbourne Cricket Club. The Australasian Cricket Council's one lasting action was to establish the Sheffield Shield, the first-class cricket competition between the Australian colonies.

These early tours were lucrative for the players and promoters and cricket administrators looked to find ways to channel some of this money to the destitute clubs, through the state associations. Formal discussions began in January 1905 in Sydney for the formation of a body to take control of tours from the players. A draft constitution was discussed by members of the New South Wales, Victoria, South Australian and Queensland associations. The first meeting of the new board was held at Wesley College in Melbourne on 6 May 1905.

The foundation members were the New South Wales Cricket Association and the Victorian Cricket Association. South Australia's delegates refused to join the Board because the Board structure denied the players any representation. The Queensland Cricket Association was represented as an observer only.

Queensland did decide to formally join the association with one delegate member the following year, and the constitution was amended in 1906, so that New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria would each have three permanent representatives, and Queensland one representative. In 1907 Tasmania was permitted to send a single representative, and Western Australia did likewise in 1913. Changes to this structure were made in 1914 and 1974 respectively when Queensland and Western Australia formally increased their representation to two each.

As a result of the strict border policies introduced by the Australian government due to the Coronavirus epidemic, Cricket Australia effectively withdrew its team from Test match competition from February to November 2021. During this period England and India played 11 Test matches and Pakistan and the West Indies each played 8 Tests. The Australian Test team resumed international competition at the Gabba on December 8 against England.

Name changes

Cricket Australia has had three different names since its foundation. They are:

*Australian Board of Control for International Cricket (1905–1973)
*Australian Cricket Board (1973–2003)
*Cricket Australia (2003–present)

Finances

The organisation's revenue was A$380.9 million in the year ended 30 June 2015, with a net surplus of $99 million largely attributed to the success of co-hosting the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Competitions

As well as responsibility for Australian international sides, Cricket Australia organises interstate cricket in Australia, including the three premier competitions in each of the major forms of the game. These are the Sheffield Shield in first-class cricket, the JLT One-Day Cup, which is the domestic one-day competition, and the KFC Big Bash League, which is the domestic Twenty20 competition.

Cricket Australia's competitions:

* Sheffield Shield
* Marsh One-Day Cup
* Big Bash League
* Futures League (Second XI)
* Women's National Cricket League
* Women's Big Bash League

Cricket Australia also runs the Under 19 and Under 17 Male Championships, the Under 18 and Under 15 Female National Championships, the National Indigenous Cricket Championships and the National Cricket Inclusion Championships.

Honours

Cricket Australia also provides awards for various categories of players, including:
* Male: Test Player of the Year, One-Day Player of the Year, Bradman Young Player of the Year, Domestic Player of the Year, and the Allan Border Medal for the overall best Australian men's cricketer of the year.
* Female: the Belinda Clark Award for the best Australian women's cricketer of the year, the Betty Wilson Young Player of the Year, and the Domestic Player of the Year

Cricket Australia also honours players for exceptional service to the game of cricket in Australia by annually adding former players of great distinction to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

Principals / Chairman of Cricket Australia

Chairmen

* Richard Teece: 1892–1893
* Richard Best: 1893–1895
* Mostyn Evan: 1895–1896; 1910–1911
* John Gibson: 1896–1897
* Will Whitridge: 1897–1900
* Lawrence Adamson: 1905–1906
* Ernie Bean: 1906–1907; 1912–1913
* George Barbour: 1907–1908
* George Foxton: 1908–1910
* Charles Eady: 1911
* William McElhone: 1911–1912
* James Allen: 1913–1914
* Harry Blinman: 1914–1919
* Harold Bushby: 1919; 1925–1926
* Harry Gregory: 1919–1920; 1922–1923; 1926–1927
* Harry Rush: 1920–1922
* Jack Hutcheon: 1923–1924
* Bernard Scrymgour: 1924–1925
* Aubrey Oxlade: 1927–1930; 1933–1936; 1945–1948; 1951–1952
* Dr Allen Robertson: 1930–1933; 1936–1945; 1948–1951
* Roy Middleton: 1952–1955
* Frank Cush: 1955–1957
* Bill Dowling: 1957–1960
* Sir Donald Bradman: 1960–1963; 1969–1972
* Ewart Macmillan: 1963–1966
* Bob Parish: 1966–1969; 1975–1978
* Tim Caldwell: 1972–1975
* Phil Ridings: 1980–1983
* Fred Bennett: 1983–1986
* Malcolm Gray: 1986–1989
* Colin Egar: 1989–1992
* Alan Crompton: 1992–1995
* Denis Rogers: 1995–2001
* Robert Merriman: 2001–2005
* Creagh O'Connor: 2005–2008
* Jack Clarke: 2008–2011
* Wally Edwards: 2011–2015
* David Peever: 2015–2018
* Earl Eddings: 2018–2021
* Richard Freudenstein: 2021–2022 (interim)
* Dr Lachlan Henderson: 2022–present
* Mike Baird: 2023– (incoming)

Secretaries & Chief Executive Officers

* John Portus: 1892–1896
* John Creswell: 1896–1900
* William McElhone: 1905–1910
* Colin Sinclair: 1910–1911
* Sydney Smith: 1911–1927
* William Jeanes: 1927–1954
* Jack Ledward: 1954–1960
* Alan Barnes: 1960–1980
* David Richards: 1980–1993
* Graham Halbish: 1993–1997
* Malcolm Speed: 1997–2001
* James Sutherland: 2001–2018
* Kevin Roberts: 2018–2020
* Nick Hockley: 2020–present

National Selection Panel

The National Selection Panel is the part of Cricket Australia responsible for team selections for each of the Australian national sides in every form of cricket.

The current three-man panel for the Australian men's sides is: George Bailey (chairman), Andrew McDonald (head coach) and Tony Dodemaide.

The current four-person panel for the Australia women's sides is: Shawn Flegler (chairman), Matthew Mott (head coach), Avril Fahey and Julie Hayes.

Board of directors

Cricket Australia is governed by nine directors, who work collectively in the national interest of Australian cricket.

The chief executive officer reports to the board of nine directors. The current nine board members are:

Last updated: 13 October 2022

See also

* Australian national cricket team
* Australia national women's cricket team
* Cricket in Australia

References

Bibliography

* ''Wisden Cricketers Almanack''
*

External links

Cricket Australia official website

Cricket news, scores and highlights produced by Cricket Australia's digital content team

Official CA Facebook page

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1905 establishments in Australia
Sports organizations established in 1905