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The reviews, which will feature a fresh charter for the behaviour of Australian cricketers on the field, are expected to be highly critical of CA's organisational "arrogance" in recent years, and will be unveiled by the CA chairman David Peever and fellow director Jacquie Hey after his re-election at the AGM on Thursday.
Particular focus is set to be placed on the Don Argus-led review of 2011, which recommended the addition of performance-based pay to the contracting system, the setting of clear goals for Australia to be No. 1 in all three formats of the game, and the appointment of the team performance manager Pat Howard as a "single point of accountability" for team performance.
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Fighting words from Greg Dyer in last May's edition of the ACA's magazine, in which he compares Cricket Australia to the banks, implies that any "cultural" problems are the fault of Sutherland and the board, and alludes to the inconsistency of the punishments with international precedents:
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Departing Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has revealed his regret that the Newlands ball tampering scandal may not have played out so disastrously ... had he been able to intervene earlier in the affair.
Sutherland famously turned off the TV in his Melbourne home before the broadcast showed evidence that Bancroft had used a foreign object to try to change the ball's condition...
... It was not until about 3am the following morning, after the press conference had taken place, that Sutherland was spoken to about events in South Africa. In this the episode echoed others where Sutherland was unable to be directly involved, including the 2013 suspensions of four players for not doing "homework" for then coach Mickey Arthur in India, an event that led to his replacement by Darren Lehmann.
"At a guess it would've been about midnight I suppose [that I turned the TV off] but, yeah, I wish I was watching, absolutely. It was a serious WTF moment there," Sutherland told ESPNcricinfo. "I'd like to think that my judgment and possibly influence would have meant that the media conference would have gone slightly differently.
"As we know, that was part of the penalty and the severity of the penalty, was to some extent related or at least was consequential in terms of how that was handled - not telling the truth, or not telling the whole truth.
"No doubt that homework thing, if I'd been anywhere near that, it would have been a different outcome. I'd like to think in some cases where things have gone awry that that's true. You can't be everywhere."
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[We are promised that we'll be able to read the full interview "next week". We breathlessly await.]
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"I have seen the review. It will be hard hitting, confronting for CA and for anyone who loves the game of cricket," Taylor told Channel Nine.
"Everything is on the table."
On Friday, CA chairman David Peever said after the body's annual general meeting that there had been no delay in releasing the findings.
The Australian Cricketers' Association said CA had missed an opportunity by not having the findings available at the AGM.
Peever was re-elected chairman at the AGM and the ACA wanted state associations to have a copy of the findings beforehand, so they could make a more informed decision on whether he should stay at the helm.
Taylor defended the decision to go ahead with the election before the findings were known.
"The CA constitution still allows the states and territories to get together if they think a change is need at a board level, me included, whether at AGM or any time after," he said.
"They are well within their rights under the constitution to do so."
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Failures in Cricket Australia contributed to the ball tampering scandal in South Africa, a review into the game has found, raising grounds for the reduction in the penalties handed to Steve Smith and David Warner.
CA have been slammed as "arrogant" and out of touch by the authors of a report commissioned to examine the game after the crisis at Newlands.
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Fairfax Media understands The Ethics Centre has found there was strong systemic and organisational input to the events at Newlands, which is likely to drive calls for Smith and Warner to be allowed to come back earlier.
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Among the key recommendations put forward by Simon Longstaff's review team is the creation of an ethics commission to look at the governance of the game, and the establishment of a cricket council to discuss major issues in Australian cricket.
This council will include representatives from CA and the states.
The review exposes a disconnect between the CA board and stakeholders in the game at how Jolimont lives up to its values and ethics. Fairfax Media understands there was a significant discrepancy between responses from directors and others in the sport.
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... The long-awaited reports - redacted in parts - into CA's culture ... found the sport's administrators were just as much to blame for the ball-tampering scandal and ugly events which sent the game into crisis during the tour of South Africa in March.
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In a damning 145-page report by Longstaff and his team, CA has been accused of consistently not living up to its "values and principles", while there were "multiple instances of disrespect running through CA", including an example of bullying that allegedly was "swept under the carpet".
"The most common description of CA is as 'arrogant' and 'controlling'. The core complaint is that the organisation does not respect anyone other than its own. Players feel that they are treated as commodities. There is a feeling amongst some state and territory associations that they are patronised while sponsors believe their value is defined solely in transactional terms," the report said.
One unnamed response declared that: "CA does not handle situations well when it goes against them. They revert to bully tactics or worse, ostracising! We now need a strong board with a commitment to a way of being that is unimpeachable, that we can be proud of", while an unnamed CA staff member said "we are obsessed with being No.1 but it's fool's gold".
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CA has also been urged to conduct a major review of its high-performance unit - Howard is leaving next year - and encouraged to have anyone associated with the high-performance unit banned from taking part in industrial negotiations with players. Howard had been criticised for his involvement.
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CA chairman David Peever said the governing body had already made changes.
"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 will continue to take place," he said.
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The individual could only dissemble and squirm. Peever said he had taken responsibility, "voluntarily" commissioning two "independent" reports and transparently and fully releasing their contents and findings. As if he had any choice to order up the reports. As if they could credibly have been anything other than independent.
As for the release, the word is that CA had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the idea of publishing them in toto; they had wanted only to put out the mostly dry recommendations. And yet Peever tootles on, saying only: "I serve at the pleasure of the board and the states."
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D. Brettig's recap:
Cricket Australia's culture review: the day in ten points
The Australian Cricketers Association has not ruled out contemplating legal action should its submission fail to lift the suspensions of the three Australian cricketers who were banned for their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
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The ACA will table an official submission to the Cricket Australia board by close of business on Thursday.
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The ACA insisted the findings of the Longstaff report, released by CA on Monday, were "new and significant" - that being CA was also partly to blame for the heightened tensions that led to the ball scuffing in Cape Town - and must prompt a rethink of the suspensions.
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Nicholson said all options, including heading to the courts, would be considered if the submission for a rehearing failed. Potential court action could fall under restraint of trade.
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The push to cut the bans has split the cricketing world. While former Test greats, including Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne and former coach Darren Lehmann want the bans lifted, former batsman Simon Katich says they must be upheld.
Precious little in cricket today could be more extraordinary than the self-flagellation taking place in Australia.
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All this at the beginning of a week that followed David Warner walking off the field during the early part of his innings for Randwick-Petersham in a club match last Saturday afternoon.
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Cricket comes from the soul, and historically, because of this, cricketers take care of their own and of their game. ... The spirit of cricket is everything, for it is an easy game to treat anywhere from lightly to with contempt; and too often it is just as easy to escape censure.
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Thinking back now to Cape Town, and the madness, one cannot help but wonder if there was something masochistic in the actions of the Australian players, as if living with the reputation of unpleasantness had become too great a burden; like an adulterer who can no longer live the lie but has not the strength to admit the deception and instead simply gets caught in order to admit guilt and start over.
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Equally, all cricketers are tempted to take the main chance - as they have seen it taken by those before them - and at times are guilty of developing it too far. This certainly applies to ball-tampering, an act that comes in many guises. The English, for example, might scoff at the use of sandpaper on the ball but may quietly pick the seam or suck a mint that leads to saliva that helps the ball to shine and, hopefully, swing.
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The 145-page Ethics Centre report commissioned by Cricket Australia in the wake of Cape Town is hard-hitting but mainly well balanced. Effectively, it blames much of what has gone wrong with Australian cricket of late on a win-at-all-costs mentality prompted by >CA's over-zealous pursuit of commercial reward and a misguided perception of national approval.
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The surprise in the report is that the ball-tampering incident is not specifically addressed in a way that tells us anything we did not already know. Given it was the root problem of the fallout, and prompted condemnation from the Australian prime minister, among others, it might well have been a case of the current players closing ranks in the face of such public outrage. It is revealing that only 24% of them contributed.
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This must make for painful reading, especially for Sutherland, who is a thoroughly decent man and driven by traditional values. Somehow these stopped applying to his organisation. Perhaps he took his eye off the ball; all cricketers know just how destructive a mistake that can be. Probably he stayed in the job a little too long and the new wave had riders that went by him.
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Now that Peever has gone, Taylor would be a good choice to take his seat. The seat is ready for a cricket person.
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Of course, it is the Australians who are taking a beating, but people in glass houses and all that... The greatest value in this report will be its wide publication and therefore the reach of its message. Greed had overtaken common sense in cricket's order of things: everything is for money and much less is for love. There is hardly a governing body in the world not guilty of taking this wonderful game down a less than wonderful path.
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Cricket has survived because it is an incredibly special game, and a reflection of life. Its phrases and nuances are to be found everywhere we look and listen. It is both a simple and complicated game that suits all sizes and shapes, majorities and minorities. It does high and low like no other, with the capacity to lift its players to the clouds and dump them in the gutter in the same over. In a split moment, the taking of a fine catch will match the reflected glory of a long-fought-for hundred, or 25 overs of blood-and-sweat bowling that results in wresting control of a potentially doomed situation. But cricket is not to be messed with, for it has the habit of making those that do so pay the heaviest price.
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[Comment: Nicholas's article seems to be a mix of good and bad. Some of his statements seem fanciful. His interpretation of the low player response is that they were closing ranks; Brettig's interpretation is that the players viewed the reviews with cynicism, as perhaps a pre-ordained marketing exercise by CA. If they wanted to close ranks, they could still have replied, ignoring whichever questions they wanted to ignore and not saying anything they didn't want to say. They could have used their replies as an opportunity to dump on CA. The cynicism interpretation therefore seems more plausible.]
