Greg Dyer, the players’ association president, on the sort of changes needed in the board – at the state and national level
Interview by Daniel Brettig04-Dec-2011What are the major problems inherent in CA’s current structure?
The problems are really two-fold. One is the qualifications of the individuals on the board, the skill set – and that is not to denigrate any one of them. There are some very high-quality people on that CA board, but they’re not pre-qualified, there’s no skills list and set that they’re asked to live up to. So they’re not necessarily well-qualified to be running a modern corporate structure, which is basically a marketing company in many respects.The second problem is the lack of independence. Cricket Australia has a very substantial job to do, but it has come out of this historical anomaly, where effectively CA was tasked with running the international aspects of the game on behalf of the states. You could understand why that was set up as a model, where the states had representation, and the board was effectively an accumulation of the states, and CA simply did the states’ work. Now CA is running the game, basically, domestically as well as internationally, and taking a huge hand in the way in which the strategy of Australian cricket works. So you’ve got constant conflict between what CA wants to achieve versus what the states need to get out of it. There’s an inherent conflict of interest, which I’m sure they manage in the best way they can, but it inevitably means there is no singular purpose about CA – it is a set of compromises from the states’ agenda.Dyer’s proposed model for CA
Company form
CA becomes an incorporated association in structure with a membership of constituent organisations.
It has a number of agreed objectives which cover the full extent of its activities and enable it to manage the business of Australian cricket.
The constitution should define the general powers of the association and the separately defined (subset) powers of the board of directors.
Membership structure
State Associations have senior membership status; ditto the Australian Cricketers’ Association.
ACT and NT, umpires etc have associate membership status.
Senior members have two delegates each to an AGM, associate members have one delegate.
Voting
Voting rights for each member could be pro rata, based on the number of affiliated local or other constituent associations each member has, or in line with some other indicator, such as registered player numbers. Alternatively, a simpler model would allocate 10 votes for senior members, five for associates, or similar.
The members appoint a president by vote at the AGM (three-year terms). They may also want to appoint a patron (a significant public person) for a longer term, if required. The role of patron is entirely ceremonial.
Meetings
AGMs would be held to consider accounts, elect officers (board and president), and consider any other business as appropriate and within CA’s general powers.
A minimum number of, say, 30 votes could requisition a general meeting at another time to consider and vote on any matter within the association’s powers, but not overriding the board’s defined powers.
Board
Could have up to nine members. For example, with three directors up for election each year on a three year rotation.
Board chairman would be elected each year, after the AGM, by the nine directors.
Director candidate nominations can be provided by any member association, but nominees should be subject to the scrutiny of a selection panel before being eligible for election.
Selection panel for the board
Could be three: one Australian Institute of Directors representative, one outgoing existing board member, and the president.
Panel is required to adhere to particular agreed selection criteria, and to ensure that the board has an appropriate spread of knowledge and background, given the specific powers it must exercise under the constitution.
Candidates reviewed for skills, background and fit with the ongoing six board members to ensure that an appropriately rounded board will be elected.
If there are more than three qualified and approved candidates, an election is then conducted at the AGM, with voting recorded from all member associations.
Powers
The board’s powers are defined by the constitution, but include all the usual powers, such as the appointment and remuneration of the CEO and the delegation of authorities to the executive.
Development, approval and execution of a strategic plan covering short and long term goals.
Agreeing on the CEO’s key performance indicators (in line with the strategic plan) and then their regular review.
Approval of annual budgets and monitoring of results.
Doing all things necessary to ensure that CA is properly organised, staffed and run so as to successfully implement the strategic plan.
Strategic plan
The draft updated strategic plan must be provided to all members annually for comment and input prior to its re-adoption by the board. Ultimately, however, the plan is the board’s responsibility.
The document should address all the main areas of CA’s objectives (as defined by the constitution).
Board meetings would then receive reports from the executive to cover the areas of its delegated authority and the achievement of the strategic plan’s goals and objectives.
Should the new structure be broader-based, in terms of the skills of directors – chosen for their ability to chart the path of the company rather than to protect the interests of their home state?
In the corporate world we seek to put together groups of people who have broad skills that run right across the gamut of the company’s operation. So you have the HR specialists, the legal guys, the marketing guys – people with the industry skill set and knowledge. You’ll have people who’ve played the game, because that is important too, but it is in a broad base of skills which matches what the organisation needs to achieve. So you’ve got this well-rounded group of individuals who are put together for the task at hand… that is basically my premise. We need to put together a group of people who have the right skills to do the job that is required, rather than a group representative of state associations, who have to do the bidding on behalf of their state to make sure they get their share.The state associations will pick their delegates, logically, if they have any common sense at all in the current system, to best represent their own interests on the national board. That’s their job, so that almost means they’re by definition the wrong person. You can’t blame the state associations, because they are entirely beholden to CA these days for their financial and developmental areas, and their result at the end of the year is basically dependent on CA largesse. There are inherent conflicts between what is good for CA and what is good for state A or state B.The handing down of the governance review is imminent. Do you expect the states to recognise the need for change, or will there be a drawn-out struggle to relieve them of their current power?
I really hope not. I hope the report from Colin Carter and David Crawford gets made completely public. I hope it gets laid on the table for everybody to read. I’m not sure they’ll come up with a model which looks exactly like mine, but I suspect it won’t look terribly different because that is the only logical way you can set an organisation up for success.Having put it on the table, then they have to talk about it, decide at CA level which recommendations they’re going to go forward with, and then it has to go back in to the states for a decision, because at the moment they’re the stakeholders, the guys who hold the power. It is such an amazing opportunity, and if they miss it, it’ll put cricket back another five years.Urgency about this issue seems to be evident at CA, but how confident are you that the view is shared widely enough for change to take place?
I haven’t spoken to all the participants, but I have spoken to some and they do recognise the need for change. All power to CA for bringing this on. James Sutherland is to be applauded for having the guts to do something like this, because it is pretty far-reaching. But I think the executive at CA are probably just as frustrated by the situation as anybody else. I think they don’t get the direction that they need. They’re constantly looking to play the politics of compromise between the states and CA’s objectives, and the model I’m talking about – and hopefully that is recommended – can give them much better clarity around their purpose and their objectives over the next five years or more. The executive, leaving aside the board and the state boards, is probably sitting there hoping they achieve some real change.Where do the players and their rights sit in this debate?
Historically there has been a sort of us-and-them mentality. Cricket administrators have known what’s best, if you like. But today the players are the administrators’ best asset, so they need to be working with them. They need to be trying to improve the quality and the value of those assets, and you only do that by working with them, rather than feeling like it is an us-versus-them kind of mentality. The whole structure needs to change in order to improve that relationship with the players.Change at board level would continue an important year of regeneration and even revolution around the national team.
There’s a mood for change, but in some respects it is back to the future – they’re doing some basic things again that they’d forgotten about, and it is great. A bloke like John Inverarity is old guard, old-school, almost by definition, and I think it is a really good thing they’re returning to some of those values and putting teams of people together who are likely to succeed.The ICC is also undergoing a governance review. Do you think that change in Australia could be a catalyst for similar movement on a global level?
I’m not sure that of itself change in Australia will produce change at the international level, but one thing is for sure, if we fail to take this opportunity in Australia, it is much less likely we’ll achieve change at the international level down the track. One of the objectives of CA should be to try to achieve change at the ICC level, but that won’t be achieved overnight. They’re going to have to work the politics and be a little less naïve in the way they do do that, than they’ve been in the past.
