Pat Howard lands key CA job

	Pat Howard had a stint as coach of the Leicester Tigers rugby team © PA Photos Enlarge
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Pat Howard has conceded he will have to earn the respect of Australia's players and coaches after being brought in from outside the game to become Cricket Australia's new head of high performance. A former rugby international, Howard, 37, has been handed the powerful job of general manager of team performance, a newly-created role recommended by the Argus review and a position in which Australia's captain, head coach and full-time selector will report to him.

A Wallabies player who represented Australia in 20 Tests during the 1990s, Howard beat several candidates with strong cricket backgrounds to win the new position, in which he will play a key part in appointing Tim Nielsen's replacement as head coach as well as the new selection panel. Howard said while he would join Cricket Australia with a clean slate and fresh ideas, willing to "ask those dumb questions" about why things are the way they are, he could not take his new authority for granted.

"Leadership and management come in all forms," Howard said after the appointment on Thursday. "You've got to make sure that you understand the group and the group mentality. I've got to get my head around the culture of cricket and the personalities involved. That's a process that comes in over time. Regardless of what your title is, you've got to earn respect and that takes time. I'm not going to be granted anything - you've got to earn it."

Howard was unveiled at Cricket Australia's Melbourne headquarters, where he showed the kind of confidence and poise expected of a man who has played sport at the highest level and forged a successful career off the field. In explaining why Howard would be the key figure around which Australia's rebuilding process would begin, the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland pointed to his strong background in various fields, including his time as general manager of the high performance unit for the Australian Rugby Union.

"His credentials are very, very strong, albeit in a sporting sense, in rugby," Sutherland said. "But it's important to note that he has played at the highest level, he has coached, he has been a national selector - he knows and understands high performance. He has had a general manager role in high performance as well. On top of that he brings a whole lot of other credentials that we find very attractive.

"He's a pharmacist by trade, originally, and that lends itself to something that's very important in high-performance sport, the sports medical aspect of performance. On top of that he's more recently had a career in industry and that broadened his offering and made him a very attractive candidate."

Howard will take up his new role in mid-November, allowing him time to wrap up his current position as chief operations officer of Cromwell Property Group, and he hopes to squeeze in a trip to South Africa to meet Australia's squad during the ongoing series, which begins with a Twenty20 on Thursday. He will be based at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane and will work closely with state cricket managers around the country in an effort to co-ordinate national player development.

The appointment of Howard means Australia can now begin to fine-tune their search for a new head coach, an expanded role that involves directing the coaching strategy for elite cricket throughout the country, as well as the full-time national selector and two part-time independent selectors. Those positions, like Howard's, were recommended by the Argus review, which he believes was "a watershed moment" in Australian cricket.

"The Argus review is a fantastic platform to build from, being able to dissect that at every level, engage at every level," Howard said. "The fact that Australia is not on top means there is some real upside, I think. A mandate for change and growth is not always possible when you're No.1. The Argus review was a really great watershed moment and I think it presents a really good opportunity.

"One of the things about rugby and cricket that is similar is that the fortunes of the game rely heavily on the performance of the national team. Other sports can rely on domestic competition and domestic wins and losses. Cricket and rugby can't. The Wallabies need to win; the Australian Test team needs to win. As an Australian public we don't accept anything less, so it's a great challenge."

After a decade of dominance leading up to the retirements of champion players such as Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, Australia slipped to fifth on the ICC Test rankings, although they have moved back up to fourth following last month's series victory over Sri Lanka. While Howard's brief is to oversee the resurgence of Australian cricket, other areas such as competition management, umpiring, programming, anti-corruption, security, team logistics and industrial relations will remain the realm of Michael Brown, Cricket Australia's general manager of operations.