Cricket Australia plans smaller board

Melbourne, April 24 (IANS) Cricket Australia (CA) said Tuesday it would seek the approval of the state associations for a smaller board.

CA needs a majority of 11-14ths to be passed at its special meeting in July, following a board meeting.

CA chairman Wally Edwards said he was confident of success but South Australia may oppose the stage-two model of all nine directors being independent of state boards.

According to current system, CA board has 14 members from six states, with each state nominating between one and three directors each.

"We didn't get a unanimous position because of this issue of the independent director. One state is pretty well locked in on wanting to have their own delegated director, from the SACA (South Australia Cricket Association). SACA are against it. I don't want to hide that fact.

"They want the director located in South Australia. They want to appoint him and they want him to be on their board. My belief is that it will be passed. July is the big one. If five out of the six states agree, it moves forward and Cricket Australia's constitution will be changed, that directors can't be a member of their state board. It's an issue SACA will have to come to grips with. They've got a lot of time to think about it," Edwards was quoted as saying by The Age.

Edwards said in the past three reform attempts had failed because the bigger states didn't want to give up their voting strength.

"There's been a lot of grumpiness about some states being more equal than others, three, two and one (votes). This first step gets rid of all that. It gets us back to nine directors (including three independently elected directors)," he said.