In wake of the ball-tampering row, former Australia coach Mickey Arthur has come down heavily on Cricket Australia for not reining in the boorish and arrogant behaviour among the members of their national team.
In his column published in Players Voice, Arthur was scathing in his assessment of the national board, stating that they “had demonstrated no real willingness or desire to improve the culture within their organisation”.
Arthur reflected on his two-year stint as coach of the Australian team which ended in his unceremonious sacking in wake of David Warner’s punch to Joe Root’s head in 2013.
During his time with the Australian national team, Arthur tried to bring change in form of the “homework-gate” that saw four players getting suspended for not completing a school-like assignment during the team’s tour of India in 2013.
Arthur, who is now at the helm of affairs of the Pakistan national team, said that the latest “ball-tampering scandal” is just a culmination of unchecked cultural problems.
“Unfortunately, it was always going to end like this,” Arthur wrote. “Despite generational change, independent reviews and too many behavioural spotfires to list, Cricket Australia and the national team had demonstrated no real willingness or desire to improve the culture within their organisation from season to season. That could lead to only one conclusion - An explosion.
“A deterioration of standards that would culminate in an incident so bad, so ugly, that it would shame the leaders of the organisation into taking drastic action to change the culture or risk alienating fans, sponsors, broadcasters and other stakeholders,” he added.
‘Bitterly disappointed’
Arthur clarified that he wasn’t blameless when it came to addressing the eroding culture within the team, which has come forth in form of the ball-tampering row that has seen careers of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft coming to abrupt halt.
“It gives me no pleasure to say this. Indeed, for the period between 2011 and 2013 it was my job, as national team coach, to make the very changes I just mentioned were needed,” Arthur wrote.
“That I wasn’t able to advance that cause disappoints me. I am not for a moment saying I was blameless. There are decisions I would change if I had my time again. But there were other factors at play, factors that have long been associated with Australian cricket,” he added.
Arthur said he had great admiration of Lehmann as a coach, but felt that no one in the set up was even remotely interested in addressing the issue of team culture.
“I have been bitterly disappointed watching the Australian cricket team over the last few years. The behaviour has been boorish and arrogant. The way they’ve gone about their business hasn’t been good, and it hasn’t been good for a while,” Arthur wrote.
“The impression I got was, at a period in time where they could’ve been addressing the broader issue of team culture, Cricket Australia were instead intent on bringing in an Aussie knockabout for beers at the bar at 6pm, telling stories about yesteryear, everyone sitting around the campfire and having a laugh and going to bed happy.
“It was going to be hard to make meaningful change in that environment,” he added.
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