Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland has rubbished claims by former Australian captain Ricky Ponting that the decline in the country's cricket has partly occurred due to a lack of investment in the national team.
Sutherland slammed Ponting's statement that if the CA board had listened to him, who is widely regarded as Australia's most successful captain, and then-coach John Buchanan more often, then the side would not be in its current malaise
According to News.com.au, however, Sutherland claimed that he did not recall a conversation with Ponting where he apparently said 'no one spends money when they're going well', adding that it just unnecessary speculation that CA did not invest in the team properly.
Stating that CA revenues grew from 39 million dollars to 75 million dollars during Ponting's captainship in that high performance elite cricket area, Sutherland said the growth showed that the organisation was not merely sitting on its hands, adding that it was focusing on investing in high performance to get improvement.
Sutherland further said that Ponting did not have any clear view on what the budget was and what CA were spending, adding that in the same period, the number of people around the team in team support and team management more than doubled.
Sutherland also said that it is necessary to acknowledge the fact that throwing money at something is not necessarily the silver bullet solution, adding that in his experience, more is never enough sometimes for certain players in those areas.