Ex-test captain Mark Taylor has quit as a director of Cricket Australia in the latest fallout from a ball-tampering scandal that has reverberated around the national team and its administration since March.
Taylor had been touted as a possible successor to board chairman David Peever, who relented last week to pressure to resign after a highly-critical report into the conduct and governance of Cricket Australia.
The report found CA shared some blame for the culture that led to the ball-tampering attempt in a test against South Africa at Cape Town in March.
Test captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were banned from international or first-class cricket for 12 months and opening batsman Cameron Bancroft was suspended for nine months after the clumsy plot to change the condition of the ball during the game against South Africa was captured by TV cameras.
During his time on the Cricket Australia board, Taylor had acted as a conduit between administrators and players, though he was recently critical of a call from the Players Association to reduce the bans on Smith and Warner.
Peever followed chief executive James Sutherland’s departure from the organization. Taylor was recommended as Peever’s successor by former world cricket boss Malcolm Speed, but chose instead to step aside.
“I said many months ago my next step as a Cricket Australia director was to step up or to step off the board,” Taylor, a long-time cricket commentator on Australian television, said. “I had an opportunity to put my name forward as the chairman or to step off.”
“I think I’ve made the right move in the interests of Australian cricket to step off and give some other, hopefully, former player an opportunity to add some fresh ideas to this role as a director of Cricket Australia. I’ve got to the stage where I don’t think I can give any more,” he said.
