CA chief executive James Sutherland: Australia lucky to be a top-10 side

11/16/2016

Australia are “lucky to be a top-10 side,” Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has said after the home side were steamrolled by South Africa, who took an unassailable 2-0 lead to seal their third successive Test series victory Down Under.

Steve Smith-led Australia went down by an innings and 80 runs in four days in the second Test in Hobart after losing their last eight wickets for the addition of just 40 runs. Sutherland and Australia's high performance manager Pat Howard flew to Hobart in a desperate bid to analyse the team’s ignominious show.

"Now clearly the performance of the Australian team over the course of the past three months is not good enough and is not in keeping with our fans' expectations or expectations for the game,” Sutherland told a news conference on Wednesday. Later in the day, Australia’s selection chairman Rod Marsh resigned.

"But three months ago we were the number one team in the world in Test cricket and One-day cricket. We are not today and we are not shying away from that issue. It's my responsibility to lead the people to turn this around,” the chief executive said.

“We're lucky to be a top-10 side at the moment, but I also do believe that by sticking to the process the players can work through that and can turn things around.”

Sutherland expressed uncertainly over his future at CA following the humiliating defeat.

"Ultimately that's a decision for the board as to whether I'm the right person to lead. But Australian cricket broadly speaking is in good shape," he said.

“You can't just flick a switch when you're in a rut like this. You actually need to close ranks work very hard, be very focused on process and work together as a team.

"Now clearly there's going to be changes for the next Test match and it will be a different group of players that gather for the next Test match.

"I don't know how many changes there will be or anything like that. But those players that are there from this Test match need to be very clear about the challenge and how they bring people, maybe some new people into the team. There's no short cuts and in the short term we've got to just knuckle down and work very hard.”

The loss at Hobart was Australia’s fifth straight Test defeat after losing a series in Sri Lanka in August. The 50-overs world champions also lost a ODI series in South Africa.

The final Test will be played in Adelaide from Nov 24.

CA chief executive James Sutherland: Australia lucky to be a top-10 side

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