Australia news 2011 " Pat Howard lands key CA job"

"Pat Howard" has reconoció he will have to earn the respect of Australia's players and coaches after being brought in from outside the game to become Cricket Australia's new head of high performance. A former rugby international, Howard, 37, has been handed the powerful job of general manager of team performance, a newly-created role recommended by the Argus review and a position in which Australia's captain, head coach and full-time selector will report to him.
 

A Wallabies player who represented Australia in 20 Tests during the 1990s, Howard beat several candidates with strong cricket backgrounds to win the new position, in which he will play a key part in appointing Tim Nielsen's replacement as head coach as well as the new selection panel. Howard said while he would join Cricket Australia with a clean slate and fresh ideas, willing to "ask those dumb questions" about why things are the way they are, he could not take his new authority for granted.

"Leadership and management come in all forms," Howard said after the appointment on Thursday. "You've got to make sure that you understand the group and the group mentality. I've got to get my head around the culture of cricket and the personalities involved. That's a process that comes in over time. Regardless of what your title is, you've got to earn respect and that takes time. I'm not going to be granted anything - you've got to earn it."

Howard was unveiled at Cricket Australia's Melbourne headquarters, where he showed the kind of confidence and poise expected of a man who has played sport at the highest level and forged a successful career off the field. In explaining why Howard would be the key figure around which Australia's rebuilding process would begin, the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland pointed to his strong background in various fields, including his time as general manager of the high performance unit for the Australian Rugby Union. 

"His credentials are very, very strong, albeit in a sporting sense, in rugby," Sutherland said. "But it's important to note that he has played at the highest level, he has coached, he has been a national selector - he knows and understands high performance. He has had a general manager role in high performance as well. On top of that he brings a whole lot of other credentials that we find very attractive. 

After a decade of dominance leading up to the retirements of champion players such as Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, Australia slipped to fifth on the ICC Test rankings, although they have moved back up to fourth following last month's series victory over Sri Lanka. While Howard's brief is to oversee the resurgence of Australian cricket, other areas such as competition management, umpiring, programming, anti-corruption, security, team logistics and industrial relations will remain the realm of Michael Brown, Cricket Australia's general manager of operations.