The man who urged dramatic cultural reform at Cricket Australia (CA) will appear before the sport's leading administrators next week in a bid to have his top recommendation passed. Sources have confirmed Dr Simon Longstaff, of the Ethics Centre, has been invited to front the Australian Cricket Council (ACC) on Thursday and explain why the sport needs to introduce an ethics commission.
Longstaff led the cultural review of CA in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal of 2018, and tabled 42 recommendations, of which an ethics commission was seen as the most important as a way of ensuring administrators, staff and players conducted themselves in the right manner.
In response to the recommendation, CA said at the time that it "supports the recommendation and CA will implement it in a manner consistent with the format used by the ICC" but this has yet to happen despite other recommendations being enforced.
The ACC, which comprises CA chairman Earl Eddings, the state association chairs and Australian Cricketers Association chairman Greg Dyer, has debated the merits of an ethics commission but Eddings and state chairs have yet to be sold on the idea. Dyer, however, remains a strong advocate.
There is a view an ethics commission would add an unnecessary, even complicated, layer to CA's disciplinary and governance structure, but another view is that could provide guidance and even recommendations before a matter went before an official CA hearing.
The ACA maintains the Emily Smith case last summer where the ‘Hobart Hurricane’ was found to have breached CA's anti-corruption code after she posted her team's line-up on Instagram would ideally have gone before an ethics commission after she was suspended for 12 months, with nine months suspended.
Longstaff said a three-member commission would have at least one male and one female member nominated by the CA board and have the "unanimous agreement" of each state and territory association, the ACA and Cricket Umpires Australia.
"The purpose of the Australian Cricket Ethics Commission would be to hold all participants in Australian cricket accountable to the ethical foundations for the game as played in Australia in accordance with How We Play, the Spirit of Cricket, the Laws of Cricket – and any successor documents that establish ethical standards for the game," Longstaff wrote.
"The Australian Cricket Ethics Commission would have no formal powers. Its influence would lie solely in its capacity, in private and/or in public, to approve or disapprove of: Certain practices occurring on or off the field of play, or in the administration of the game; The conduct of organisations involved in the governance, management or advancement of cricket in Australia."
CA has said it "will appoint an independent ethics commissioner with direct access to the chairman and the CA board" but that remains a work in progress.
John Stephenson
john@cricketinvestor.co.uk
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