Cricket Australia’s shock decision to ban Ashes stars from speaking to the ABC was prompted by the players themselves, it has been reported.
The national broadcaster was told no team members would be made available for interviews after day two of the Sydney Test due to anger over comments made by former fast bowler Stuart Clark.
Speaking on the ABC, Clark suggested chief selector George Bailey was a yes-man who had no power to say no to Andrew McDonald, while also questioning the credentials of cricket head James Allsopp.
Clark said: ‘James Allsopp, who runs cricket in Australia, the head of cricket, community cricket, is a grade club cricket coach who throws armpit balls at kids.
‘[Ben Oliver] runs high-performance cricket, but I don’t know exactly what he does now.
‘Then there’s George [Bailey]who is chairman of the selectors. Does he have the gravitas or leadership skills to tell Andrew McDonald and Steve Smith or Pat Cummins what to do? He should do that 100 percent, but I don’t think he does.’
Cricket Australia CEO Todd Green responded by labeling the attack on the pair as ‘out of order’ and imposing a ban.
Now a report claims the decision was made by the players, and not the top management of Cricket Australia.
“I am told the playing group made the decision to censure the ABC, backed by the CA media department, which told the national broadcaster that all would be forgiven if an apology was made – which the ABC refused to do,” the spokesperson said. AustralianAndrew Webster reports.
Steve Smith – who captained the side in Sydney in the absence of Pat Cummins – and pacer Mitchell Starc have launched a strong defense of Bailey in response to Clark’s criticism.
Bailey has faced repeated criticism from past players since taking over as chief selector in 2021, including Steve Waugh who questioned whether he was prepared to make tough decisions ahead of this summer.
In that time, Australia have won their first T20 World Cup, an ODI World Cup in India, a World Test Championship final, retained the Ashes in England and defeated both them and India at home.
Smith claimed after day five in Sydney that he was unaware of Clark’s comments or the ABC boycott, but questioned why anyone would be critical of Bailey.
“He did a great job for a long time,” Smith said.
“We’ve made it to a few Test Championship finals since he’s been in charge. We played some really good cricket.
‘We won this series 4-1. So what else is there to say?’
During Bailey’s tenure, Australia left Nathan Lyon out of the pink-ball Tests in Jamaica and Brisbane.
Travis Head was recalled in the middle order and now moved up to opener, while Alex Carey was dropped as wicketkeeper for one match in Australia’s successful 2023 ODI World Cup.
Mitch Marsh was also dropped last summer, while Starc was ruled out of matches in both of the past two T20 World Cups.
“The best thing about George is that it’s never a sugar conversation,” Starc said.
“He’ll tell you right away if it’s conditional, role-based or something like that.
‘This way I can talk about that relationship with George as a selector.
“As Steve said, I think every move George and the selection committee have made in this series is a 4-1 result.
“And they’ve made some tough decisions, not just this series, but even a series earlier back. So to be here 4-1, I think they did a fantastic job.”
