Turbulent Halbish Era Is Cut Short (22 Jan 1997)

22 January 1997

Turbulent Halbish era is cut short

By Simon Hughes in Melbourne

THERE was rarely a dull moment while the now deposed chief executive of the Australian Cricket Board, Graham Halbish, was in office.

In his three years at the helm he was at the centre of Australia`s refusal to play a World Cup match in strife-torn Colombo and had to sort out the dispute over Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan being called for chucking.

He was also lumbered with trying to unravel bribery allegations brought by Tim May, Shane Warne and Mark Waugh against Salim Malik.

He fought, in vain, to have the federal government`s ban on tobacco sponsorship postponed, meaning a major new source of income had to be found.

Halbish is taking legal action over his dismissal last weekend, and in a statement yesterday refuted suggestions he had forced through unwelcome gimmickry such as loud entertainment at one-day games and extravagant amounts of ground advertising, claiming they were not his ideas.

He also denied reports that he had tried surreptitiously to restructure the Board, or attempted, by not inviting the ACB chairman to a recent meeting, to clinch a sponsorship deal behind his back.

"The office of the ACB chairman entitles the incumbent to attend any meeting to do with cricket," Halbish said through his lawyers. "Essentially, a day at the cricket in this instance, there were to be discussions on the state of sponsorship . . . If the chairman wished to attend then so be it."

Relations between Halbish and the chairman, Denis Rogers, had clearly been strained for some time, and this latest oversight seems to have been the final straw. After a stormy meeting of the Board in Perth last week, delegates voted 11-3 in favour of Halbish standing down. He was asked to resign, refused, and so was sacked.

It was an unsavoury end to 15 years of dedicated work for Halbish, who joined the ACB in 1981, appointed Bobby Simpson as Australia`s first national coach in 1986 to try to reverse a run of demoralising performances, and helped set up the Australian Cricket Academy.

He was generally perceived as an innovative mover and shaker, but perhaps in the end he got too big for his boots.

Judging from Rogers` laborious address at the end of the World Series finals on Monday, he is a man who likes the limelight. He stood astride the podium for 10 minutes thanking everyone from the television commentators to the cleaners before finally presenting Pakistan`s Wasim Akram with the Carlton United Trophy.

It was a reminder that regardless of the efforts of your administration, you cannot control what happens on the field. The Melbourne Cricket Ground was less than a third full because of the absence of Australia in the finals, and poor pitches at the country`s major venues caused loss of revenue because Test matches and one-day competitions finished early. It was not the chief executive who should have been fired but the head groundsman.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)