Under-pressure Australia cricket boss quits

SYDNEY: Cricket Australia chairman David Peever quit on Thursday after coming under intense pressure over a ball-tampering scandal which has triggered an exodus of senior figures and long bans for three players.

The former Rio Tinto mining executive was only voted in for a new three-year term last week, days before a scathing independent review sparked by the cheating row slammed the governing body.

Calls have been mounting for Peever to go after it emerged that the CA-commissioned report was not provided to the country’s state associations before he was re-elected.He was also widely criticised after an interview with broadcaster ABC this week in which he referred to the ball-tampering affair, which rattled the sport and caused an outcry among the Australian public, as a “hiccup”.

“Cricket Australia has today confirmed that Mr. David Peever has announced his resignation as chairman of the board of Cricket Australia, effective immediately,” the governing body said in a statement.

His deputy Earl Eddings was appointed as interim chairman and said: “We have a way to go to earn back the trust of the cricket community.”

The review by the Sydney-based Ethics Centre blasted CA’s conduct leading up to the tampering incident in March, when players were caught using sandpaper to alter the ball at a Test match in Cape Town.

It found that an “arrogant” and “controlling” culture within the governing body contributed to players, who existed in a “gilded bubble”, cheating in the pursuit of victory.

The document also included complaints that there was a bullying culture in elite men’s cricket. It made 42 recommendations, including establishing an anti-harassment code to stop sledging and training to improve team leaders’ “moral courage”.