Chappell criticises Cricket Australia: The administrators make the mistake, the players cop the punishment

Responding to the release of The Ethics Centre's scathing review of Australian cricketing culture, the former Baggy Green batsman suggested that key figures at the organisation "don't understand the game of cricket at the highest level"

Ian Chappell claimed Cricket Australia "have been going astray for a while" as he laid into the governing body for the way in which they have run the game Down Under.

Responding to the release of The Ethics Centre's scathing review of Australian cricketing culture, the former Baggy Green batsman suggested that key figures at the organisation "don't understand the game of cricket at the highest level" or "how you go about playing and winning at the highest level".

The 75-year-old questioned whether chairman David Peever should still be in his role and highlighted his grievances with administrators leaving players to take the heat.

Cricket Australia, he said, would "struggle to change" with Peever remaining at the helm.

"Didn't he say the buck stops with me? I seem to recall hearing that or reading that somewhere. I mean if the buck stopped with him, he'd be gone," Chappell told Australian broadcaster ABC.

^{Cricket Australia chairman David Peever}

"When the fiasco in Cape Town occurred I said if it's only three people — being Smith, Warner and Bancroft — if only three get it in the neck then it's a joke. Well, I think it's now officially a joke.

"Quite rightly the players are going to be angry about that, the fact it's only them who copped it in the neck.

"But that's the history of the game. The administrators make the mistake, the players cop the punishment.

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"If things are going astray on the field they are usually going astray off the field. And I think they've been going astray for a while."

Chappell said he was "glad to get out" from underneath Australia's cricketing administrators following his time as captain in the early 1970s.

"I don't think they were running it very well then and I don't think much has changed," he said.

"All decisions seem to be made according to the bottom line. I would love to hear the words, 'We're making this move in the best interests of the game'. You just don't hear it."

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