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Jack Clarke, the Cricket Australia chair who oversaw the introduction of the Big Bash League and a major overhaul of the governing body’s board of directors, has died in Adelaide.
Clarke, a lawyer who served on the South Australian Cricket Association board for many years either side of his time at Cricket Australia, was 70 and had a history of health problems.
Jack Clarke during his time as chair of Cricket Australia.Credit: Wayne Taylor
He suffered a cardiac arrest in his sleep in hospital in Adelaide while awaiting an operation.
Clarke became chair of Cricket Australia in 2008, replacing his fellow South Australian Creagh O’Connor, in the wake of the fractious 2007-08 “Monkeygate” season when India threatened to quit their tour of Australia amid the Andrew Symonds-Harbhajan Singh affair.
Clarke’s time in the role was marked by numerous key decisions made for the future of the game, even as CA wrestled with the declining fortunes of the national men’s team following the retirements of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Justin Langer, to name four.
Following the launch of the Indian Premier League in 2008, Clarke and CA’s then chief executive, James Sutherland, worked together to review the governance structure of the game, the financial model and also the possibility of expanding the state-based Big Bash into something broader.
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