Inverarity nominates to join WA Cricket Board

EXCLUSIVE

John Townsend

West Australian cricket great John Inverarity is in line to become the next chairman of WA Cricket after nominating to fill one of the two member-elected board vacancies.

Inverarity is one of 12 candidates seeking to fill the positions left vacant when chairman Terry Waldron and Nicola Brandon quit suddenly last month. That pair’s exits followed the shock resignations of former Test players Graeme Wood and Mike Veletta, and prominent academic Colleen Hayward.

Current board member Tom Percy urged WA Cricket to hold an investigation into the departures, saying that he would have to reconsider his board position if an inquiry was not forthcoming.

Inverarity, the former Sheffield Shield-winning WA captain, Test player and chairman of Australian selectors, is the highest-profile candidate to seek election at next month’s special general meeting.

Former Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon, a nephew of former WACA chairman and Test paceman Sam Gannon, has also nominated.

WA Cricket members will vote for the two candidates with the winners to be announced at the SGM on November 21. WA Cricket identified a strong cricket playing background, and good political networks and government relations as the key criteria for candidates seeking election.

Inverarity, 78, was a Fremantle football club board member for several seasons early this century and headmaster at Hale School for 14 years. The 50-year-old Inverarity Stand was demolished this year in preparation for the redevelopment of the WACA Ground but the name will live on with the introduction of the Inverarity Pavilion.

The board faces a tough period over the next year or so with members being told at last month’s AGM that funding for the $100 million ground redevelopment was about $30 million short of budget.

The State and federal governments have committed $30 million each, Cricket Australia will put in $4 million but WA Cricket’s bid to raise $11 million through its WA Cricket Foundation is more than $10 million short of the target.

IMAGE: FILE