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Abstract
In 2003 the men's Australian Cricket Board (ACB) and Women's Cricket Australia (WCA) amalgamated to form a gender integrated national body, Cricket Australia. This essay shows that this new organization has served the interests of women well in a number of key areas, including junior development, coaching of talented youth, financial support and scholarships. There have also been modest improvements to the publicity and profile of the women's game. Yet these benefits are, arguably, compromised by an arm's length managerial strategy in which women have little decision-making voice in the state organizations, and are absent from the board of CA itself. The men who run the game of cricket have recourse to substantial amounts of revenue and sponsorship income, which are deployed as they see fit. We argue that if women's cricket is to emerge out of the shadow of the men's game, it is vital to have female representation on the CA board and more generally among state cricket organizations.
Notes
1 In this essay we use the terms merger, amalgamation and integration interchangeably. This is a stylistic device: the common meaning we attribute to these words are ‘any combination of two or more enterprises into a single enterprise’. Random House Unabridged Dictionary. The underlying nature and complexity of combining enterprises are discussed later in the essay.
2 CitationHoye and Stewart, ‘Power and Organisational Change’, 63.
3 CitationHoye and Stewart, ‘Power and Organisational Change’, 63
4 Prior to 1998, Women's Cricket Australia (WCA) was known as the Australian Women's Cricket Council (AWCC). For the convenience of readers, we have referred singularly to WCA except where specific reference to AWCC helps inform the essay.
5 Hoye and Stewart, ‘Power and Organisational Change’, 63.
6 Appoint Women: An Australian Government Initiative. http://www.appoint women.gov.au/about/minister.htm.
7 The ASX 200 refers to the top 200 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in a particular year.
8 CitationEqual Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), The 2006 Australian Census of Women in Leadership.
9 CitationKing, ‘The Sexual Politics of Sport’; CitationThompson, ‘“Thank the Ladies for the Plates”’; CitationStell, Half the Race, 250–70; CitationRandall, ‘Women and Sport in Australia’; CitationLenskyj, ‘Sport and the Threat to Gender Boundaries’; CitationBurroughs and Nauright, ‘Women's Sports and Embodiment in Australia and New Zealand’; Cashman, Paradise of Sport, 72–91; CitationPhillips, Australian Women at the Olympic Games; CitationAdair and Vamplew, Sport in Australian History, 48–62.
10 Australia, Parliament, House of Representatives, Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. Equity for women in sport: a joint seminar – held by the House of representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs and the Australian Sports Commission, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT Wednesday 27 February and Thursday 28 February 1991 (official Hansard Report); CitationMcKay, Why so Few?; CitationMcKay, ‘Masculine Hegemony’; CitationMcKay, Managing Gender.
11 CitationAdriaanse, “‘A Seat at the Table”’.
12 Adriaanse's figures are drawn from the Australian Sports Commission (CitationASC) report Benchmark Data Summary.
13 Adriaanse, “‘A Seat at the Table”’.
14 CitationCashman and Weaver, Wicket Women; CitationBurroughs, Seebohm and Ashburn, ‘Add Sex and Stir’; CitationBurroughs, Seebohm and Ashburn, ‘A “Leso Story”’.
15 McKay, Managing Gender; CitationRintala and Bischoff, ‘Persistent Resistance’, CitationWelch, Towards Gender Equity in Sports Management; CitationAitchison, Jordan and Brackenridge, ‘Women in Leisure Management’; CitationShaw and Slack, ‘“It's Been Like That for Donkey's Years”’; CitationWhisenant, Pedersen and Obenour, ‘Success and Gender’; CitationRees, ‘A New Strategy’; CitationAitchison, ‘Feminist and Gender Research’; CitationShaw, ‘Gender Suppression’; CitationShaw and Frisby, ‘Can Gender Equity be More Equitable?’; CitationHoeber, ‘“It's Somewhere on the List”’; CitationPassword, ‘Exploring the Gaps’.
16 CitationShaw and Penney, ‘Gender Equity Policies’.
17 In this essay we use the terms acquisition or takeover interchangeably. This is a stylistic device: the common meaning we attribute to these words are ‘the act or action of acquiring; specifically: the obtaining of controlling interest in a company’ (emphasis in the original). Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law. These phenomena range considerably: from ‘friendly’ acquisitions involving agreement from two or more parties, through to ‘hostile’ takeovers where there is disagreement by one or more party.
18 For examples on three continents, see CitationPhillips and Nauright, ‘Sports Fan Movements to Save Suburban-based Football Teams’; CitationDuke and Renson, ‘From Factions to Fusions?’; CitationStevens, ‘The Canadian Hockey Association Merger’.
19 CitationAndrews, ‘Sport and the Transnationalizing Media Corporation’; CitationGrainger and Andrews, ‘Resisting Rupert Through Sporting Rituals?’; CitationWarf, ‘Oligopolization of Global Media and Telecommunications’.
20 M. Tran, ‘Adidas to Take Over Rival Reebok’. Guardian Unlimited, August 3, 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/aug/03/money1; Reuters, ‘Germany's Puma Leaps on French Bid’. Spiegel Online International, April 10, 2007. http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,476389,00.html.
21 CitationLenskyj, ‘Whose Sport?’, 147.
22 CitationAdams and Stevens, ‘Change and Grassroots Movement’.
23 CitationHoeber and Frisby, ‘Gender Equity for Athletes’, 192.
24 CitationWilliams, ‘The Fastest Growing Sport?’, 121.
25 CitationCox and Thompson, ‘From Heydays to Struggles’, 222.
26 CitationPhillips, ‘How Hockey Avoided Merger Meltdown’.
27 Brown, J. quoted in M. O'Regan (ed.), ‘Football Culture, Netball Culture’. The Sports Factor, ABC Radio National, 15 March 2002. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/sportsfactor/stories/2002/505198.htm.
28 CitationFoster, ‘Women in a Sporting Administration Environment’, 8.
29 CitationVan Sterkenburg and Knoppers, ‘Dominant Discourses’, 303.
30 Title IX legislation is a United States law enacted on 23 June 1972, that states: ‘No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance’.
31 CitationJensen, ‘Women's Collegiate Athletics’; CitationLopiano, ‘A Political Analysis’; CitationHult, ‘Women's Struggle for Governance in US Amateur Athletics’; CitationLovett and Lowry, ‘Women and the NCAA’; Whisenant, Pedersen and Obenour, ‘Success and Gender’.
32 CitationKikulis, Slack and Hinings, ‘Toward an Understanding of the Role of Agency and Choice’; CitationKikulis, Slack and Hinings, ‘Does Decision Making Make a Difference?’; CitationAuld, ‘Professionalisation of Australian Sport’; CitationSkinner, Stewart and Edwards, ‘Amateurism to Professionalism’; CitationHill and Kikulis, ‘Contemplating Restructuring’; CitationKikulis, ‘Continuity and Change’; CitationAmis, Slack and Hinings, ‘Values and Organizational Change’.
33 CitationEdwards, Gilbert and Skinner, Extending the Boundaries, 57–67.
34 CitationHoye and Cuskelly, ‘Board Power and Performance’, 103.
35 CitationRobbins and Barnwell, Organisation Theory, 223.
36 CitationSlack, Understanding Sport Organizations, 179.
37 Hoye and Cuskelly, ‘Board Power and Performance’, 103.
38 CitationPfeffer, ‘Merger as a Response to Organizational Interdependence’; CitationGiessner et al. , ‘The Challenge of Merging’.
39 CitationSeo and Hill, ‘Understanding the Human Side of Merger and Acquisition’.
40 CitationOlie, ‘Shades of Culture’; CitationTerry and O'Brien, ‘Status, Legitimacy, and Ingroup Bias’.
41 CitationCusella, ‘“Managing after the Merger”’; CitationBoen, Vanbeselaere and Cool, ‘Group Status’.
42 Terry and O'Brien, ‘Status, Legitimacy, and Ingroup Bias’, 287.
43 Full transcripts of these interviews are held by the lead author.
44 CitationCashman, Paradise of Sport, 72–91.
45 CitationCashman et al. (eds), The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket, 596. For detailed analysis of women's cricket, media and sexuality, see Burroughs, Seebohm and Ashburn, ‘Add Sex and Stir’; Burroughs, Seebohm and Ashburn, ‘A “Leso Story”’.
46 Burroughs, Seebohm and Ashburn, ‘A “Leso Story”’, 33.
47 Burroughs, Seebohm and Ashburn, ‘A “Leso Story”’, 41.
48 WCA, Annual Report, 1997/98, 7.
49 Cashman and Weaver, Wicket Women, 82–3, 149; WCA, Annual Report, 1997/98; Official Home Page of Women's Cricket in Australia: http://www.southernstars.org.au/wca.htm.
50 N. Tugwell, ‘Host of Problems for [Southern] Stars’. Advertiser, December 29, 2000.
51 N. Tugwell, ‘Host of Problems for [Southern] Stars’. Advertiser, December 29, 2000; CitationThompson, ‘Girls Don't Just Want to Have Fun’.
52 WCA, Annual Report, 1998/1999.
53 WCA, Annual Report, 1999/2000.
54 WCA, Annual Report, 1997/1998.
55 C. Saltau, ‘Women's Cricket to Join with ACB’. The Age, November 9, 1999.
56 C. Saltau, ‘Women's Cricket to Join with ACB’. The Age, November 9, 1999
57 CitationASC, Amalgamation Guidelines.
58 CitationEnvironment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Reference Committee, Women in Sport and Recreation in Australia.
59 A brief synopsis can be found in CitationCooke, ‘All Together Now’.
60 R. Kershler, ‘Bias Put to Rest in New Bowls Amalgamation’. The Daily Telegraph, July 16, 2002.
61 M. Blake, ‘Golf's Peak Amateur Bodies to Amalgamate – Golf ’. The Age, February 16, 2005. See also M. Blake, ‘Cash Threat Over Amalgamation Deadlock – Golf ’. The Age, January 22, 2005; M. Blake, ‘Amalgamation Forces Phillips to Quit – Golf ’. The Age, June 1, 2005.
62 CitationBartlett, ‘Amalgamation of Men's and Women's Sports’; Phillips, ‘How Hockey Avoided Merger Meltdown’.
63 Endersbee, quoted in CitationTrethewey, ‘Putting the Runs on the Board’, 28.
64 WCA, Annual Report 1999/2000, 5.
65 ‘Boards Talk of Amalgamation’. Australian, December 26, 2000.
66 WCA, Board Meeting Minutes, 30 July 2000.
67 ACB/WCA, ‘Draft Heads of Agreement’, 1 July 2001, 2–3.
68 ACB, Minutes Women's Cricket Advisory Committee, 20 September 2002, 2.
69 ACB, Report to Directors, 23 May 2003, 1.
70 WCA, Report to WCA Members: Women's Cricket Reference Group, 28 May 2003, 2.
71 ACB, Annual Report 2002/2003, 15.
72 ACB, Report to Directors, 3 April 2003, 3.
73 ACB, Report to Directors, 3 April 2003, 4.
74 ACB, Annual Report 2002/2003, 5.
75 ACB, Report to Directors, 3 April 2003, 3.
76 ‘Boards Talk of Amalgamation’.
78 Written correspondence between WCA members, 17 June 2003, held by the lead author.
79 Full transcripts of these interviews are held by the lead author.
80 Full transcripts of these interviews are held by the lead author
81 Johnston, personal communication with lead author, 15 May 2006.
82 Johnston, personal communication with lead author, 15 May 2006
83 Clark, personal communication with lead author, 22 May 2006.
84 Johnston, personal communication with lead author, 15 May 2006.
85 Clark, personal communication lead author, 22 May 2006.
86 Clark, personal communication lead author, 22 May 2006
87 Parliament of Australia Senate Report, About Time!, 77.
88 Parliament of Australia Senate Report, About Time!, 95.
89 ‘ECB Structure’. http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/about/ecb-structure,28,BP.html.
90 CitationPatwardhan, ‘Women Seek BCCI's Expertise’.
91 ‘ICC Structure and Contacts’. 30 October 2007. http://icc-cricket.yahoo.com/about-icc/executive.html.
92 ‘NZ Cricket Organisation Chart’. http://www.blackcaps.co.nz/content/corporate/publications/ORGCHARTAugust2007.pdf.
93 CitationCA, ‘Females in Cricket’, 111.
94 CitationHovden, ‘From Rights-based to Utility-based Equalization’.
95 ‘More Australian Women Take up the Challenge of Sports Leadership’. ASC media release, September 7, 2007. http://www.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2007/ascmedia/07.09.07.asp.
96 Adriaanse, “‘A Seat at the Table”’, 6.
97 Adriaanse, “‘A Seat at the Table”’
98 CitationASC, Sport Innovation and Best Practice; CitationASC, Governing Sport; CitationASC, Submission to the Senate; Office for Women, Australian Government, ‘Advancing Women in Leadership’. http://ofw.facs.gov.au/downloads/pdfs/decade_of_achievements_women_leadership.pdf.
99 ‘Australian Sports Commission Events: Sport Needs More Women 2003’. http://www.ausport.gov.au/events/womensforum2003/index.asp.
100 ‘Australian Sports Commission Events: Sport Needs More Women 2003’. http://www.ausport.gov.au/events/womensforum2003/index.asp
101 CA, ‘Females in Cricket’, 100, 108.
102 CA, ‘Females in Cricket’, 84.
