One of Todd Greenberg’s most important conversations as Cricket Australia’s new boss took place some weeks before he formally started the job. But it was fitting that it happened on cricket’s biggest stage, during its greatest occasion of the year.
At the Boxing Day Test against India, which was attended by a record 373,691 spectators, Greenberg had a lengthy and highly animated conversation with Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins in the seats in front of the Harrison Room at the MCG.
New Cricket Australia chief Todd Greenberg.Credit: Wayne Taylor
During Nick Hockley’s eventful tenure at CA, former Sydney Thunder and Cricket Tasmania chief Cummins was often the loudest dissenting voice to Greenberg’s predecessor. This was something Greenberg had observed at close quarters as Australian Cricketers Association chief, during meetings with Hockley and state and territory CEOs.
More broadly, the central body had been mired in debates with its state association owners for nearly a decade, dating back to the Newlands scandal and a scathing cultural review. Since then, two chairs – David Peever and Earl Eddings – were forced out by the states, either side of CEO Kevin Roberts also being pushed.
Greenberg won’t divulge details of the conversation that took place in his final week as Australian Cricketers’ Association boss. But he was happy to admit he has made it very clear to Cummins and others that he wants collaborative and trusting relationships with cricket leaders from across the spectrum, the better to do things such as achieving their ambition to make the Big Bash League No.2 to the IPL, and grow the game for all.
For his part, Cummins was refreshed by the conversation’s frankness, and has heartily endorsed Greenberg’s work so far.
“The conversation with Nick – I think you’ll see more of that and there should be more of that,” Greenberg tells this masthead. “Particularly, someone like Nick who’s got a decade-plus of experience working in cricket. I don’t have that experience, so I’d be mad not to listen to him.
“I don’t walk into this job thinking I know everything. I probably know less than a lot of people looking around the room. But what I can bring is my perspectives from other parts of my career to help cricket. What [the states] will get from me is really honest and open conversation, honest views from me, and if I can’t do something I’ll tell them.
“Healthy conflict is OK. But that doesn’t mean we’ll be having public spats through the media. If revenue grows, then the two groups that win most are the states and the players. So aligning the interests to grow revenue means everybody wins.”
Greenberg (right) with Cricket Australia chair and former NSW Premier Mike Baird.Credit: Getty Images
One thing Greenberg is at pains to point out is that he is not purely a rugby league person, as he is often perceived given former roles at the Canterbury Bulldogs and then as NRL CEO from 2016 to 2020. His first sporting love was cricket, as was his first job in sports administration with Cricket NSW.
“Some people will still see me as the guy from rugby league who came into cricket, but my background has always been in cricket,” he says. “I played, I’m a one club man at Randwick-Petersham, so when people say ‘oh you’re in cricket now’, I started in cricket.
“I think this is the best sports job in the country, and that comes from a complete love of the sport. I came through participation and community, so I understand people doing it because they love the game.”
‘We can’t put our head in the sand’: Greenberg’s push for SCG drop-ins
Greenberg has reopened the debate about drop-in pitches at the SCG by declaring the summer game needed to consider how many more days the ground would be available to cricket by ripping up the old wicket square.
A former board director for Venues New South Wales, Greenberg recently raised the question of overdue facility upgrades at the SCG, but took the opportunity while speaking with this masthead at the MCG to say that drop-ins needed to be part of the conversation in Sydney.
Cricket traditionalists in Sydney have opposed such a move for decades, but Greenberg argued forcefully that lovers of the game needed to consider the advantages of drop-ins, now that Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne have shown that the pitches themselves can produce quality cricket and more days of use for the ground.
“At the moment we can’t even have a conversation about drop-in wickets in Sydney because it’s not feasible to put one in,” says Greenberg, who moved from Sydney to Melbourne after taking cricket’s top job. “Cricket has long maintained the need to continue with the wicket squares in stadiums, but my view going forward is there’s flexibility on both parties, and for us to use drop-in wickets to our advantage.
The scene at the SCG as Australia batted on day two of this year’s Test.Credit: Steven Siewert
“We need to have an open mind, and I’ll certainly bring an open mind to the conversation, whether it’s in Sydney or elsewhere. If governments are going to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure, what they want in return for that is usage and content.
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon.Credit: AFL Photos
“So we can’t put our head in the sand … we have to respect infrastructure investment from governments to ensure the venues can be genuinely multipurpose. The advantage for us potentially when we’re not in cricket season or on the shoulder of cricket season, is that we can play additional events with drop-in wickets. So the advantage for sports works both ways.”
To that end, Greenberg has already met with AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon and wants the country’s major sports to work together on growing participation and interest in their games.
“That doesn’t mean Andrew and I will agree on everything,” Greenberg says. “But if we both think above each of our sports to how do we ensure the most amount of money is invested into our infrastructure and stadia, then it makes sense that we work together.
“Working in the winter codes, you can quite easily be caught in the vortex of your own responsibility week to week. No one understands that better than me, I was in it for a long time. The winter codes dominate those winter months, as they should. There’s tribalism that goes all over the country, and that’s a good thing.
“One thing you’ll never hear from me is anything critical of any other sport. It’s important that every Australian child, boy or girl, gets to play sport. Of course, I want them to play cricket, but if they’re not playing cricket I want them to play other sports. Because next to their education it is the most important thing they can do.”
Why Greenberg has held talks with Saudi Arabia
In his former role as head of the ACA, Greenberg encouraged a conversation between cricket and Saudi Arabia’s sporting investment arm – now run by former Australian soccer administrator Danny Townsend.
Having taken over from Nick Hockley as CA chief, Greenberg’s first International Cricket Council meetings in Harare last week saw him included in a working group to look at the future calendar for the game, the balance between formats, divisional structures for Test cricket and also the Saudi league. Greenberg was warmly welcomed into the fold by the ICC’s Indian chair Jay Shah.
Jay Shah is the head of the International Cricket Council.Credit: SOPA Images/LightRocket
Greenberg acknowledges there may still be some squeamishness about the concept of dealing with the Kingdom, but argues forcefully that cricket cannot afford to see a repeat of the LIV Golf breakaway.
“You don’t have to be Einstein to work out that there’s an opportunity for Saudi investment for a lot of sports across the world,” Greenberg says. “The principal point is: do you want it to happen to you, or do you want it to happen with you? I’ve taken a view for cricket that if that were to happen, we’d rather be inside the conversation than outside the conversation.
“We’ve clearly seen what happens when you’re outside the conversation in other sports. So, bringing a curious mind to it, and there will be lots of challenges, but that curious mind will put you in good stead down the track. There will still be some people who feel a level of concern, and that’s completely understandable. And I will share some of those concerns.
“But I also have the view that the world is evolving quickly, so for us to think some of these things will go away, I think would be to the detriment of our sport. So, making sure you’re in the conversation or at least can have the opportunity to listen, is important because I don’t want it to happen without our knowledge or understanding or input.”
At the same time, Greenberg will also open up dialogue between cricket boards and players associations, following the release of a report on the game’s calendar by the World Cricketers Association. That report was led by Paul Marsh, soon to leave the AFL Players’ Association for the ACA, and the pair spoke this week.
“It’s great to see him back in cricket – his dad [Rod Marsh] would be looking down very proudly on him,” Greenberg says. “It’s really important that Test cricket continue to have more than just Australia, England and India, and that’s incumbent on us. We want to continue playing New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, Pakistan.
“But we do have to be brave enough to consider whether scarcity will provide better results for Test cricket. Maybe not everyone in global cricket needs to set themselves up to play Tests. There might be fewer countries playing, rather than all of them. That’s a mature, adult conversation about the evolution of the sport.
“What was clear sitting at the ICC table, and I said this in the meeting, is the complexity is that everyone’s business models are so different. In South Africa as an example, Test cricket doesn’t make up the primary source of revenue, but in Australia and England red-ball cricket holds primacy as the best revenue generator.”
Describing how he wants Australian and world cricket to work, Greenberg quotes a line from the former US president Harry Truman: “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit,” he says. “Are you going to bang your head on the table and be a recalcitrant, or are you going to try to do things for good and bring people with you?”
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