![\"England](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4ed329429a301b5e2f3f8a56275f829d.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nCricket Australia has pulled players from ABC interviews following an escalating dispute sparked by comments from former Test quick Stuart Clark, who used his role as a broadcaster to launch a blunt attack on senior figures within the national setup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The decision followed\u00a0Mr\u00a0Clark\u2019s on-air criticism of head of cricket James Allsopp and chief selector George Bailey, remarks that reverberated through Australian cricket and triggered a swift response from Cricket\u00a0Australia\u00a0headquarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Clark drew headlines on Monday when he described Allsopp as a \u201cgrade coach\u201d and questioned Bailey\u2019s authority, suggesting the former Test captain lacked the gravitas to push back against players and coaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The comments infuriated senior administrators, prompting Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg to meet\u00a0Mr\u00a0Clark on Tuesday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Greenberg defended both Allsopp and Bailey and made clear the remarks did not reflect the views of Cricket NSW, despite\u00a0Mr\u00a0Clark serving as a selector and board member with the state body.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Allsopp is regarded internally as a respected administrator, having progressed through high-performance roles, women\u2019s state\u00a0coaching,\u00a0and leadership positions within Cricket ACT after working across New South Wales development pathways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Bailey, meanwhile, has overseen a period of on-field success since being appointed chief selector in 2021, though he has\u00a0remained\u00a0a frequent target for criticism from former players.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
That external pressure is understood to have frustrated Australia\u2019s coaching staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Against that backdrop, CA opted not to provide an Australian player to the ABC for the customary post-play interview at stumps on day three of the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The national broadcaster is typically granted daily access to a player, but there is no contractual obligation for CA to do so.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is\u00a0understood that\u00a0the boycott is temporary, with interviews expected to resume as normal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night, Steve Smith spoke with other networks after scoring a century as Australia tightened its grip on the match against England.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ABC\u2019s exclusion prompted an on-air response from commentator Corbin Middlemas, who\u00a0criticised\u00a0Cricket Australia\u2019s decision and its impact on listeners across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is extremely disappointing from the fact that people in the regions and people who listen to ABC radio right across the country that obviously at this time don\u2019t get the chance to hear from the Australian cricket team,\u201d Middlemas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Australian team is a public good. It is not a private team, not\u00a0a private\u00a0enterprise. They are the custodians of the game as it sits\u00a0at the moment\u00a0and is a team all Australians have a stake in it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Clark later addressed the controversy himself, revealing he had spoken directly with\u00a0Mr\u00a0Greenberg and downplayed suggestions of an ongoing feud.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not going to get into a public spat with Todd. I have known Todd for 20 odd years. We worked together at the NRL. We are friends. We played golf together,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u00a0have had\u00a0disagreements. We will continue to have disagreements. We obviously\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0agree,\u00a0and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI will\u00a0probably see\u00a0him later tonight at a function and we will\u00a0probably have\u00a0a laugh about it. From my point of view there is no point in having a war of words about\u00a0this,\u00a0other\u00a0than to confirm that I\u00a0went and found\u00a0Todd.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cricket Australia has pulled players from ABC interviews following an escalating dispute sparked by comments from former Test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[2655,13285,64,63,15060,211261,740,44212,211260,85,211016],"class_list":["post-396114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-abc","tag-ashes","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-cricket","tag-australia-v-england","tag-cricket","tag-george-bailey","tag-james-allsopp","tag-sports","tag-stuart-clark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}