Player access cut as rift deepens between CA and ABC
Cricket Australia’s decision to deny ABC post-play interviews on Day Three of the SCG Test amplified tensions between the national governing body and the public broadcaster, following pointed criticism of CA leadership by former Test pacer and current commentator Stuart Clark.
The move, described as a rare and deliberate freeze-out, came after Clark used his ABC commentary platform to launch a sweeping critique of CA’s selection and high-performance leadership. While Steve Smith appeared for interviews with other broadcasters after his century, ABC was conspicuously left out.
ABC commentator Corbin Middlemas expressed frustration over the snub during the Day Three broadcast. “It is extremely disappointing from the fact that people in the regions and people who listen to ABC radio right across the country that obviously at this time don’t get the chance to hear from the Australian cricket team,” he said on air on ABC Radio.
He continued by questioning the broader implications of such a decision: “The Australian team is a public good. It is not a private team, not private enterprise. They are the custodians of the game as it sits at the moment and is a team all Australians have a stake in it.”
Clark’s comments ignite backlash
The situation escalated when Clark, commentating on Day Two of the fifth Test on ABC, criticised key figures in CA’s leadership structure. “James Allsopp, who runs cricket in Australia, the head of cricket, community cricket, is a grade club cricket coach that throws underarm balls to kids,” he said.
“That’s what his background is. He’s a lovely guy, don’t get me wrong. But he now runs the whole of cricket. He can’t tell (Australian coach) Andrew McDonald or (captain) Steve Smith what to do,” he added.
Clark didn’t stop there. Addressing broader concerns about CA’s chain of command, he said, “[Ben Oliver] runs high-performance cricket, but I’m not really sure what he does now.”
Turning his attention to selection, Clark questioned George Bailey’s standing within the team. “Then you have George, who is the chairman of selectors. Does he have the gravitas or the leadership skills to tell Andrew McDonald, Steve Smith or Pat Cummins what to do? He should do, 100 per cent, but I don’t think he does.”
Greenberg confronts Clark, defends CA
According to Nine, Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg directly confronted Clark at the SCG on Day Three, shortly before ABC was denied access to players. Speaking to reporters during the middle session, Greenberg didn’t hold back.
“Those comments I thought were out of order,” he said, responding to Clark’s broadcast remarks.
He continued, “When I see criticism of him (Allsopp), I think it touches on the personal criticism. I thought that was unwarranted.”
Greenberg also made it clear that Clark’s remarks did not reflect the stance of his home state board. “It was made very clear to me that they were not comments attributed to Cricket NSW. They were comments attributed to Stuart personally,” he said.
Despite the pointed exchange, Greenberg signaled he was not looking to prolong the dispute. “I’m not going to get into a war of words with Stuart because I’ve got very high regard for him, but when I think that someone’s got it wrong, I’ll say it,” he noted.
“On this occasion, I thought he overstepped the mark by talking not just about the decisions, but individually about people,” Greenberg added.
When asked about the conversation itself, Greenberg declined to provide detail, saying, “That’s up to Stuart (to elaborate on). I said, ‘I don’t want to get into days and days of us going at each other’.”
Instead, he chose to steer the narrative back to CA’s track record. “What I’m keen to put on record is the quality of the people who are making key decisions in high performance and selection, and the outcomes of those,” he said.
Greenberg backed that up with performance stats. “We’re the No. 1-ranked Test team. We won the 2023 World Test Championship and made the final the next cycle. We’ve got a 70 per cent win rate in the last four years under this crew.”
Greenberg went further, pointing to Australia’s dominance in head-to-head contests. “We hold all bilateral series trophies,” he said, highlighting the team’s sustained superiority across formats.
Reinforcing his case, he added, “I can go on and on about some of that stuff … because I think the performances are unequivocal.”
He added that despite a challenging season, Australia had met its targets. “At the start of this summer, what did we want to do? We wanted to win the Ashes, and we’ve done that,” he said.
Greenberg pointed to the difficulties the team had overcome during the summer campaign. “We’ve done that in the shadow of our captain and fast bowler [Pat Cummins] playing one Test, the adversity of not having Josh Hazlewood, the adversity of not having Nathan Lyon, losing our opening batsman in the first game and having to reshuffle the order,” he noted.
He also highlighted how the team’s form had transcended luck. “We’ve lost four out of five tosses, and we sit here today on the precipice, hopefully, of winning 4-1,” he said.
Clark downplays clash, calls it cordial disagreement
Following play on Day 3, Clark took to ABC radio to share his perspective on the discussion with Greenberg. “We spoke about it cordially. We obviously don’t agree and that’s cool,” he said.
Clark offered his own take on the exchange, describing it as respectful and light-hearted. “I will probably see him later tonight at a function and we will probably have a laugh about it. From my point of view there is no point in having a war of words about this. Other than to confirm that I went and found Todd,” he said.
He acknowledged their history of friendly disagreements. “We have had disagreements. We will continue to have disagreements. We obviously don’t agree (on this),” Clark added.
“I am not going to get into a public spat with Todd. I have known Todd for 20 odd years. We worked together at the NRL. We are friends. We played golf together. We have done all of that.” Clark added, emphasising their longstanding relationship.
He also pushed back at the idea that he is purely critical, pointing to earlier praise. “The other thing I wanted to say was when they got it right in Adelaide I commended them,” he said. “There are different times and different stages when we have been very complimentary … that has been missed.”
As of now, there’s no indication the fallout will stretch beyond Day Three, with player interviews expected to resume as normal. But the incident has reignited a familiar debate in Australian cricket — where the line is drawn between criticism, accountability, and access in a game with deep public ties.
