Argus review to report at next board meeting

Australian cricket's national team performance review is on course to be delivered to the board at its next meeting in August, assuaging concerns that findings and recommendations would not be tabled until the home summer had begun.

The Cricket Australia board is due to meet on August 18-19 in Melbourne, at the same time as the national team enters the latter stages of its limited-overs series in Sri Lanka, the prelude to three Tests in the island nation.

Tabling of the findings at that meeting would allow the board to deliberate over recommendations at the meeting and possibly decide to make decisions based on them at their meeting, likely to be in October.

It is not known yet whether the findings will be made public, but CA is aware of a high level of public interest in the panel's conclusions.

"We now hope they will be in a position to report to the board during the August meeting," a CA spokesman said. "We are waiting for confirmation but hoping that it will be ready for the second day of the meeting.

"We are very aware that everyone in Australian cricket is interested to know what the review will recommend."

The review, chaired by Don Argus, has included the former Test captains Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Allan Border on its panel, alongside the former CA chief executive Malcolm Speed. His successor James Sutherland has also been part of the process, but interviewees have been allowed to ask for his absence if they did not feel comfortable stating their views to the current CEO.

Interviews have featured a wide range of cricketers, coaches and other stakeholders, including some members of the media, and a vast range of topics have been discussed at length. The state of the domestic scene was a key area for discussion, as evidenced by the changes to the Futures League second XI competition, which has been heavily criticised for leaning too heavily towards youth.

The push towards Twenty20 at developmental and commercial levels has also been a point of discussion, though any recommendations for the prioritising of Test and limited-overs cricket at the expense of T20 would seem likely to contradict the lavish preparation being put into the expanded Big Bash League.

Simon Katich, in his pointed attack on what he called the "inconsistent selection policies" of the national selectors, brought the chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch and his panel into heavy focus. Hilditch has been out of contract since the end of the World Cup but has held his position pending the conclusion of the review.

Tim Nielsen, the national coach, has been the target of similar scrutiny, and the appointments of the former Test players Steve Rixon (fielding coach) and Craig McDermott (bowling coach) as assistants have indicated that greater international expertise may be useful.

The delivery of the review findings will create something of a hurdle for CA's policy of internal discussion and briefing before information is disseminated to the public.

Australia's players and support staff will clearly want to know what the implications of the review are for them before the media is informed, but the concurrent limited-overs series in Sri Lanka will put distance and time between the board and its players.

"One of our principles is that we are committed to internal communication and discussion before we ever communicate externally," the spokesman said. "Everyone in Sri Lanka will be given a briefing about the review findings before the public discussion begins."