Taylor to miss out on board spot

Mark Taylor's name is expected to be missing when the three candidates for Australian cricket's first fully independent board directorships are revealed on Friday.

The former Australian captain and a longtime Cricket Australia board member, Taylor lost his place when it was streamlined to one member from each of the six states at an historic general meeting earlier this year. The one spot for New South Wales went instead to Harry Harinath, the Cricket NSW chairman.

In subsequent weeks Taylor resigned his spot on the Cricket NSW board, seemingly making himself available for one of the independent spots.

However ESPNcricinfo understands the search for independent directors, overseen by a committee including the CA chairman Wally Edwards, the former BHP chairman Don Argus and the Ferrier Hodgson co-founder Tony Hodgson, has taken a different path.

Widely touted as a future CA chairman almost from the moment he retired as Australia's Test captain in 1999, Taylor has juggled television commentary work with his administrative positions, and argued passionately for the reform of Australian cricket's governance in NSW this year. However he will now need to wait until the other state-based members of the board filter out over a period of years if he is to regain a spot at the table.

Taylor's absence from the first trio of independent candidates for the board will be a surprise to many in NSW in particular, but Edwards has previously made it clear that he wanted the new directors to be drawn from far and wide, reflecting the diversity of 21st century Australia. There is a high probability that at least one of the candidates will be female.

The quest was managed by the global search company Egon Zehnder, and initially turned up as many as 100 candidates. The level of interest in CA board positions emanating from the corporate world has provided a reminder of the decision-making talent now available under a structure that no longer requires board members to spend years slogging through state association politics in order to reach the Jolimont boardroom.

Edwards, Argus, Hodgson, South Australian Cricket Association president Ian McLachlan and the Cricket Victoria chairman Geoff Tamblyn were all in Melbourne last week to conduct interviews with a shortlist of candidates. Should their three choices be approved by the board, their admission to the board will be voted on at the CA AGM on October 25.