Public message 'awry' over Haddin - Sutherland

James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, has admitted the public was poorly informed about Brad Haddin's omission from the Australian team, but reiterated that the players were completely clear in their communication with the selectors.

Speaking before today's ODI between Australia and Sri Lanka at the SCG, Sutherland confirmed Haddin had been dropped from the limited-overs team, though he remained the Test wicketkeeper of choice. The national selector John Inverarity had originally indicated Haddin was rested from the first three matches of the triangular series before his position would be reassessed. However after those matches the position was not clarified.

All the while, Haddin was in touch with Inverarity, and indicated he knew where he stood, though he would prefer to be playing. Nevertheless, Sutherland conceded that in directing so much energy towards improving relations between the players and selectors after the Argus review, it was possible that the public comment imperatives of the national panel had been left some distance behind.

"I think there has been a very strong focus over the last few months for the national selection panel to communicate very clearly to the players," Sutherland said. "Personally I understand over the past couple of weeks there might have been some uncertainty in the public space about this particular selection [Haddin's]. Personally I think we can do better and we need to do better in that regard.

"The communication to the players and to the player group ... that has been a focus of improvement and it's something that is happening and the players are very comfortable with that and the fact it has improved. If there are things that need to be made clearer in the public place and they are not, then they're things we need to improve.

"Brad's very aware of the position. He's had a number of conversations with the selectors, particularly the national selector, over the last few weeks and probably as soon as just over 24 hours ago. He knows that he's out of the team on a performance basis and he's under no illusions as to where he sits in selector's eyes.

"As I understand it the communications with Brad have been very good. There's no doubt and there has never been any doubt in Brad's mind as to where selectors see him. I think he's been open on that from the start and I think he's been very mature and very professional about that. I know that he doesn't necessarily want to be out of the team but I think at the same time he feels refreshed and raring to go and ready to fight his way back."

Inverarity was appointed by CA to develop strong communication with the players, but his function as the public face of the selection panel was seldom discussed before he formally began. Sutherland said he did not know why Inverarity had chosen not to comment publically about Haddin after initially saying the wicketkeeper had been rested.

"I don't know the specific detail on it," Sutherland said. "Looking back on it, something clearly has gone awry there and that's something we need to be clearer on. We talk about these things a lot and reflect on them. We're not comfortable with the level of uncertainty and public discussion on this particular matter.

"The really important thing though, for us, and the real focus in recent times for the national selectors has been to the players, and perhaps that area of improving that for the public's benefit just needs to be touched up on as well."

Six months on from the Argus review, Sutherland said he was happy with how its recommendations were being rolled out, with longer-term measures including a review of injury management still to reach their conclusion.

"I think a lot of the more longer term things are about improving processes and systems and the co-ordination between Cricket Australia and state associations and our high-performance pathways," Sutherland said. "And I think there are some really positive things that are happening there and the level of collaboration between states and Cricket Australia is as high as I've seen it in my time at Cricket Australia.

"But that's the first step along the way. This is a journey, it's not something where you can just say, 'we've fixed that', it's an ongoing thing and it's something that everyone's working very hard on, and during the course of the off-season it's something that will be an even greater emphasis."