It was with the beachside backdrop of Crescent Head in April 2019 that Mike Baird made his first step towards taking the chair of Cricket Australia.
On a surfing holiday a little over two years after his resignation as New South Wales premier, Baird shared a beer with the Cricket NSW chair John Knox and expressed interest in joining the board of the state association, doing so later that year.
There was no question of driving for the top job from the outset: Baird loved cricket and simply wanted to see what he could contribute. Only one previous state leader, the former South Australian premier John Bannon, had ever sat on the board.
Mike Baird, seen here with Joe Biden in 2016, has moved in the highest political, diplomatic and business circles. Credit:AP
But a pattern soon emerged at state and then national levels. Baird’s grounding as a former state premier, charisma and intelligence quickly saw other directors reach the conclusion he was a natural leader.
First, this saw Cricket NSW choosing to nominate him to the Cricket Australia board in 2020, following the dramas around CA’s COVID-19 response that saw Kevin Roberts sacked as chief executive, replaced by the incumbent Nick Hockley.
Next, Baird gained the confidence of CA’s directors, a combination of six state nominees and four independent representatives, that he could not only contribute meaningfully to the board but lead it.
The resignation of Earl Eddings in October 2021, forced by the CA constitution after he lost the support of a majority of the state associations, also followed a pattern. It had been preceded by the similarly rancorous exit of David Peever in 2018 following the culture review into the governing body following the Newlands scandal.
Richard Freudenstein, the former Foxtel chief executive, took the chair as interim until February, when Epworth Health chief executive Lachlan Henderson accepted the role. While capable, neither Freudenstein nor ultimately Henderson had the time to commit to one of sport’s more challenging posts, balancing domestic politics with the global picture.
Henderson informed CA directors about three weeks ago that he intended to resign at the end of this summer, shortly after the announcement that he had accepted a job as chief executive of the not-for -profit health fund HBF, based in Perth.
This time, at least, Henderson is getting out while still held in high regard across cricket, and will remain on the board. As part of the process for choosing a new chair, Henderson took soundings from all directors, finding that Baird had unanimous support to replace him.
That support was mirrored among state associations – not even the South Australian Cricket Association, with the vastly experienced John Harnden as their nominated board director, had other ideas.
Baird had famously called his family together rather than his party room colleagues to determine whether he would accept the commission to replace Barry O’Farrell as premier. This time he spoke extensively with his wife Kerryn before agreeing to become chair.
Those close to Baird believe that combination of building consensus while also communicating clearly will be hallmarks of his approach to the role, at a critical time for cricket in Australia. He is expected to be the highest profile chair CA has had, speaking more often publicly than any predecessor since Wally Edwards, and easing that burden on Hockley.
In addition to managing the host of relationships cricket must sustain to flourish in Australia, Baird will have the task of navigating an increasingly fraught international state, as India, cashed-up Twenty20 leagues and a relentless cycle of ICC global events squeeze traditional Test series like never before.
Chair of Cricket Australia, Lachlan Henderson, who will move aside for Mike Baird in February.Credit:Getty Images
As a Christian aligned to the Liberal Party, Baird’s appointment has created some angst about whether he will support cricket’s progressive agenda. But as he did when premier of NSW, Baird is expected to operate from the social centre.
He is supportive of the urgent need for cricket to be more diverse in its leadership choices, to better reflect the changing demographics of a country where far more young men and women see Usman Khawaja or Alana King as role models. And he was an attentive listener at the Cricket for Climate conference staged in Sydney this year by the men’s captain Pat Cummins.
But Baird’s biggest challenge, particularly if CA do not wring enough money out of the Australian broadcast deal set to be signed before the end of this year, will be to confront the question of whether the game is opened up to private capital investment. At the same time, it would be remiss not to expect closer engagement with governments.
Unquestionably, given his political history and links to investment banking, private equity and also to India’s corporate circles, Baird will look at this scenario more closely than any previous CA chair.
The key line in the strategy recently released by CA that Baird contributed to was this: “We will drive innovation with our partners to grow and diversify our revenue streams, to increase investments in the game.”
Under Baird, cricket’s long-established business model of raising revenue through broadcast rights, sponsorship and returns from the gate can expect to be challenged.
