Departing WA Cricket CEO Christina Matthews wants Perth’s West Test to rival AFL’s Dreamtime

Departing WA Cricket Association chief executive Christina Matthews wants Perth’s West Test to rival the AFL’s Dreamtime at the ’G and stage an annual tribute to cricket’s Indigenous heritage. Just days after Optus Stadium was confirmed as the venue for the first Test against India in late November – locking in WA to open each summer for the next seven years – Matthews wants the five-day match to rival Melbourne’s Boxing Day Test and Sydney’s New Year’s Pink Test. Matthews presented the concept to the Cricket Australia board at a recent departure meeting and confirmed the WACA had “talked about it internally” and hoped her successor as CEO would continue to push the theme. “Any change like that needs someone passionate to sell it, understand it, to bring it to life,” Matthews said. “Dreamtime at the ’G was a one-year thing and 15 years down the track you couldn’t imagine the AFL not doing it. “You could have this fantastic connection, which incorporates a Dreamtime walk to the ground. There is an enormous amount of Indigenous tourism in this State that we could feature in the broadcast.” The idea was first raised by WACA board candidate Daniel Smith in late 2023. But Matthews said it would have to be a day Test, given Perth’s time difference with Eastern States TV audiences and with Adelaide Oval the preferred day/night venue. “Optus Stadium itself is built on Aboriginal history,” she said. “Acknowledging the land, the words that wrap around it. You could have activities that represent that history. You don’t need fireworks and flashing lights to represent that.” EARLY CHALLENGES Matthews, 64, bows out after 12 years of transformative and combative leadership, overseeing 16 men’s and women’s domestic titles, a successful shift to Optus Stadium and the approval of a $164 million ground improvement project, against the backdrop of an often divided board, an external review over governance, and a small, but loud and destabilising section of members. A former wicketkeeper who played 20 Tests and 47 one-day internationals for Australia from 1984-’95, Matthews was appointed WACA CEO in December 2011 following roles in sports administration in cricket, hockey and Australian rules. “WA had to come out of a period of near insolvency in the late 1990s, early 2000s,” she said. “The place was in trouble, $13m in debt and $500 in the bank. The ground was in disrepair. That surprised me. And I was surprised by how the teams operated.” Early in her tenure, Matthews had to deal with the fallout from an ill-fated Twenty20 Champions League trip to South Africa when 12 players made headlines for a boozy night out. A review was launched into the culture of the squad. Captain Marcus North quit as leader. Lachlan Stevens stepped down as coach. Matthews first major move, and arguably the most significant in her tenure, was to appoint Justin Langer as Stevens’ replacement. “It was a traumatic thing for me to manage in your first year as CEO, but a great opportunity to reset,” Matthews said. “I am very philosophical about things and you might ask yourself ‘Why me?’ But it’s why you because you can fix it. The journey started from there. We got Justin involved and we started to set some new standards.” Matthews said she knew from the first interview Langer was the right person for the job. “I didn’t really know Justin Langer. There was a lot of talk about ‘would he be a good coach or not?’ and there were plenty of people when I started who said he was one-dimensional,” she said. “But as soon as I met him, it was only about five minutes in, I realised we were pretty much on the same wave-length about what we expected with people and teams. “He was really prepared to stand up for his values and I needed that in a coach.” Matthews recalls a meeting with WACA staff over player recruitment and retention for the following season just two months into her new role. “The coaching and selection staff at the time I don’t think had faith in what we had here,” she said. “That was another bonus with Justin. He was all home grown. Look at Sam Whiteman, Joel Paris, Ashton Turner, Cam Bancroft. They were all in the Australian under-19 side the year I arrived here. They are the core of our team now and they weren’t even spoken about in any real sense. “(Wicketkeeper) Luke Ronchi left and they talked about getting Tom Triffitt across from Tassie and I asked who was the best local, who at that time was Sam Whiteman. “They said he is not ready and I said ‘well he is never going to be ready until we get him into the system’. Twelve months later he was the keeper in the State side and contracted because of Justin believing in local talent. “Sometimes at the top level of Australian teams or State teams you get coaches who don’t want to coach. They just want the finished product, but your job is to take them to the next level and if there are deficiencies, then fix them.” Whiteman, now 32, made a century in last week’s Sheffield Shield final, captained them to a hat-rick of four-day and one-day titles, and on Thursday night won his maiden Laurie Sawle Medal. Langer set about making WA a squad of largely local players, focusing on untapped talent within district ranks. Success flowed both under Langer and his replacement Adam Voges. BIG BUSINESS Matthews says she leaves the full-time gig with the WACA set up well for challenging economic times. “We are a high-functioning business. We were only a $24m business back then. We are a $43m business now,” she said. “All revenues have never been higher. I am really pleased about how we have come out of COVID. Over time, we have become the State that people look at to find out how you should do things.” The $164 million refurbishment of the WACA’s northern precinct, Matthews predicts, will not only transform the iconic venue into a 10,000 seat, multi-sport and community facility, but provide a steady income stream. Resistance has been loud from sections of the WACA membership over funding for the project — which includes $139.7 million from the Federal, State and local governments and $4m from Cricket Australia, with WA Cricket making up the shortfall through its foundation — who fear the association will eat into its cash reserves and be left with the costs of running the aquatic facility. It’s a claim Matthews refutes. “It has been extremely difficult for a whole lot of reasons,” Matthews said. “The constant worry about you are never going to get the money and then you get the money. Then there’s the people no matter how secure it is, will find fault with it. “How it’s commercialised in the future, I can’t do anything about that, but there is going to be a really good basis of securing the financial future of the organisation. “The most important thing is it reduces our reliance on CA funding. And WA and South Australia are the least reliant on Cricket Australia funding out of any State. About 55 per cent of our income comes from Cricket Australia. We want to get that down to about 40-45 per cent.” Matthews took aim at her critics, who claim the redevelopment will place a financial burden on the organisation. “People say that, and they have never even seen the numbers. There are people who will say ‘no’ to anything,” she said. “We are talking about five or six people who make it their mission to criticise everything we do. “One of those who does criticise was involved in us having a $13m debt and only $500 in the bank.” SWITCH TO OPTUS Matthews looks back on Perth Scorchers’ shift to Optus Stadium from the WACA Ground in 2018 as another big win that keeps giving. “There was never too much opposition to playing T20 cricket over there because in people’s minds, that wasn’t real cricket and it didn’t have a history here,” she said. “It was difficult in that our only experience at the WACA was owning a ground and running a game. Being a hirer is vastly different. “But it has been an absolute God send for us in a whole lot of ways. “The additional revenue, and it’s around $2m a year extra just to be playing Big Bash at Optus Stadium, it provides us with an opportunity to grow our membership in a way that is far greater than we could at the WACA. And it has built our profile. Everyone knows about the Perth Scorchers, everyone knows about the experience of being at that ground.” THE FUTURE Matthews says “rest is next”. “People see I’m leaving a job, but I am not leaving the sport. I am leaving it in a formal sense, but it is in my DNA,” she said. “I’ve talked a bit about wanting to coach our female keepers, get involved with franchise cricket. Not as a coach of a team or anything like that, but maybe a role. “But I am giving myself three months to not take on anything new. “If I can help it.”