Michael Gannon to seek re-election to WACA board as redevelopment nears completion

Former Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon is seeking re-election to the West Australian Cricket Board, saying “the job is not done”. Gannon joined the board in November 22 and will stand along with current directors Paul Collins, Brad Hogg and John Inverarity for re-election at the end of their three-year tenures. The start of Gannon’s first term was marked with hostility from some members over funding of a $183 million redevelopment of the WACA Ground under former CEO Christina Matthews. The redevelopment is scheduled to be opened ahead of the first Ashes Test in November at Optus Stadium. The precinct is being transformed into an elite community-based cricket facility, with a capacity of 10,000 but scope to increase to 15,000, and will host a day-night Test match between Australia and India’s women’s teams in March next season. “I’m very proud of the role I’ve played in getting this project off the ground and doing everything I can to support my fellow directors, management, our consultants and our partners in government in making the project happen,” Gannon said. “But the job’s not finished, the build is 85 per cent done so we have got to finish it off. “We owe it to everyone who loves cricket to make sure that those businesses in the new ground improvement project are successful. “If they’re successful they will underpin everything else we want to do in terms of promoting the game, developing the game across WA. “If we don’t get those businesses right it’s a millstone around the neck. “The ground improvement project does sit at the centre of everything so it has necessarily occupied a lot of our attention. “I’m really looking forward to the time when it doesn’t dominate our agenda but it still does sit at the centre of everything.” Funding for the redevelopment has been raised through the State and Federal Governments, the City of Perth, WA Cricket and Cricket Australia. An anticipated shortfall has been avoided after another $15m commitment from the State Government in the last budget. Sections of the WACA membership have opposed the project, claiming it is too costly, but WA Cricket sees it as a new and ongoing source of revenue through a café, indoor cricket centre and aquatic centre that will be managed externally by BlueFit. Gannon said there had never been a better time to be a member ahead of the summer of cricket. “I am so optimistic about this summer’s cricket, the Ashes, the women’s day-night Test, another brilliant season of Scorchers cricket and opening the new redevelopment,” he said. “There’s a lot of people around cricket in this State who want to talk it down. They want to talk the previous CEO down. They want to talk the previous board down. They want to talk the current board down. They want to talk down the redevelopment. It’s a really exciting time to be a cricket fan in WA and I want to be part of it.” Radio presenter Oliver Peterson and decorated State and Test batter and former director Mike Veletta are two of the 17 nominees for the four vacant positions. The others are David Talalla, Himal Doolabh, Christian Hunter, Peter Hayward, Felicity Boyd, Chris Carman, Geoff Rosich, Michael Pailthorpe, Belinda Woods, Tony Sewell and Jarnail Singh. Board members can serve a maximum of nine years. Online voting closes on September 22 and members can also vote at the AGM on September 25.