Cricket Australia unveil new Players' Pact after damning Ethics Centre review

The pact reads: "We recognise how lucky we are to play this great game. We respect the game and its traditions. We want to make all Australians proud. Compete with us. Smile with us. Fight on with us. Dream with us"

An independent review into the state of Australian cricket has concluded that the men's game Down Under "has lost its balance… and has stumbled badly".

The Ethics Centre Organisational Review - commissioned by Cricket Australia in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal in March - and an additional inquest led by Test batsman Rick McCosker and featuring input from a group of former and current players have come up with 42 recommendations for how the governing body, its coaches and players should move forward and conduct themselves in the future.

Nearly 470 players, backroom staff, sponsors and media were surveyed in the process of putting together the document, which makes suggestions such as the establishment of an ethics commission, formal links to fans, and players' reputations and behaviour being taken into account during the judging process for major individual awards such as the Allan Border Medal.

"The reputation of the game of cricket, as played by men, has been tainted," The Ethics Centre review stated.

^{Cricket Australia held a press conference on Monday}

"The leadership of CA should also accept responsibility for its inadvertent (but foreseeable) failure to create and support a culture in which the will-to-win was balanced by an equal commitment to moral courage and ethical restraint.

"While good intentions might reduce culpability – they do not lessen responsibility … especially not for those who voluntarily take on the mantle of leadership."

A so-called Players' Pact has been introduced by Cricket Australia following the players' review's findings, which the organisation says will act as "the overarching statement as to how cricketers in Australia should play the game, respecting its traditions".

The pact reads: "We recognise how lucky we are to play this great game. We respect the game and its traditions. We want to make all Australians proud. Compete with us. Smile with us. Fight on with us. Dream with us."

"We recognise how lucky we are to play this great game. We respect the game and its traditions. We want to make all Australians proud. Compete with us. Smile with us. Fight on with us. Dream with us"

Cricket Australia chairman David Peever admitted that elements of The Ethics Centre's report were "at times difficult to read and in some instances, difficult to agree with what has been implied".

He said, however, that the governing body had already begun the process of implementing around half of the recommendations made by the review prior to its release.

"There’s no doubt that the ball-tampering incident in South Africa was extremely regrettable and caused distress across our country," he said.

"It has been a difficult and confronting time for everyone involved in Australian Cricket, and for that I am sorry. Mistakes have been made, lessons have been learnt, and changes are and will continue to take place.

"Our response to the ball tampering incident was necessarily tough, and we acted swiftly and decisively. At the same time, we voluntarily commissioned an independent organisational review into Australian cricket and launched, concurrently, a player review to establish a renewed behavioural charter."

Read the full report here.

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